- Office of Attorney General Maura Healey
- The Attorney General's Fair Labor Division
Media Contact for AG Healey: Employers Cannot Strip Away Legal Rights of Truck Drivers
Meggie Quackenbush
Boston — Attorney General Maura Healey led a coalition of 15 state attorneys general in filing a brief with the United States Supreme Court in supporting the rights of interstate truck drivers, both traditional employees and independent owner-operators, to challenge violations of their compensation agreements and employment protections in court rather than through forced arbitration.
In the case New Prime Inc. vs. Dominic Oliveira, a New England-based truck driver employed by New Prime Inc. asserted his right to bring wage and hour disputes to court rather than be forced into private arbitration, which favors the company. The First Circuit held that an exemption in the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) for transportation workers applied to independent contractors and that workers like Oliveira had a right to resolve disputes in court; New Prime has appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Forced arbitration denies workers their day in court,” said AG Healey. “Federal law protects truck drivers and companies cannot strip these workers of their rights.”
The brief explains that forced arbitration hinders workers in the transportation sector, both traditional employees and independent contractors, from having a meaningful role in resolving disputes affecting their compensation. The states argue that Congress expressly decided to exempt all interstate truck drivers from the FAA’s scope and asks that the court to uphold that right.
Oliveira filed a class action suit in Massachusetts federal district court alleging New Prime violated federal and state wage and hour laws when it failed to pay minimum wage and misclassified its truck drivers as independent contractors. Oliveira alleges he worked for New Prime as a student driver, an independent contractor, and a company employee, though his duties remained the same in each role. He also alleges that New Prime regularly took unfair and illegal deductions from his pay, some of which were so large that he received less than minimum wage or no pay at all.
Because New Prime had required Oliveira to sign independent contractor agreements with arbitration provisions, the company moved to compel Oliveira to resolve his disputes through binding arbitration. The court denied this motion and held that an FAA exemption applies to truck drivers like Oliveira. New Prime appealed to the First Circuit, which upheld the decision of the lower court. New Prime then appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which will hear the case in October 2018.
Workers who believe their rights have been violated in their workplace are encouraged to file a complaint at www.mass.gov/ago/fairlabor. For information about the state’s wage and hour laws, workers may call the Office’s Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465 or go to the Attorney General’s Workplace Rights website www.mass.gov/ago/fairlabor for materials in multiple languages.
Joining AG Healey in signing on to today’s brief are state attorneys general from California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Karla Zarbo of AG Healey’s Fair Labor Division and Assistant Attorney General David Kravitz of the Office of the State Solicitor.
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