Judge sides with port truckers in misclassification fight

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An interesting footnote to our post yesterday on the continuing complexity of the operations at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex and, in particular, the questions that the Ocean Alliance will need to resolve in terms of terminal choice. The next step from terminals is, of course, what happens after the landside gates, and Cosco’s US ex-gate haulage operation, Intermodal Bridge Transport, has just been found guilty at a US employment tribunal of misclassifying its drivers as independent contractors instead of employees. But according to Trucks.com, this case is just the tip of an iceberg: “Since 2011, California truckers have filed more than 800 wage claims alleging they have been misclassified as independent contractors, and have been awarded about $40m over 300 cases, according to the California Labour Commissioner’s office.”