Swift Transportation, one of the largest trucking companies in the US, has agreed to pay up to $100 million to 19,000 former and current truck drivers in a class action suit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona.
The truck drivers filed against Swift in Dec. 2009. They claimed they were misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees, and were thus locked out of certain benefits under federal labor law. One of those benefits includes being paid minimum wage for every hour that truck drivers work. Traditionally, truckers are just paid for every mile that they drive. The case returns to a question that's been plaguing America's courts in recent years — whether truck drivers deserve minimum wage for nondriving duties.
"heir actions ultimately generated an exceptional $100 million-plus-dollar fund for the class of thousands of drivers and may potentially result in changes to the industry that could benefit all misclassified drivers," Getman wrote.The decision to pay out speaks to other federal court cases appearing around the country in favor of ensuring truck drivers are paid for every hour they spend on the road.
What!! Are you serious? Lets do a little math here: 100 million divided by 19,000 is roughly $5300, divide that by at least a third for the dirtbags lawyers and they get about 3500. Most class action lawsuits dont change anything except make lawyers rich and consumers poor.
Good news