A lawsuit brought by a group of five drivers has taken a surprising turn thanks to a missing comma in a piece of state law governing overtime pay.
Kevin O’Connor, Christopher O’Connor, James Adam Cox, Michael Fraser, and Robert McNally all drove for Oakhurst Dairy, a company based in Maine. Maine law is very specific about when workers are eligible for overtime. Oakhurst Dairy was pretty sure that their drivers did not qualify. The drivers thought differently.
When the drivers first sued for their overtime pay, the court ruled against them. When they appealed the ruling however, a judge overturned the decision and sided with the drivers because of an Oxford comma.
What’s an Oxford comma? With a list of three or more items, a comma is used to separate each item. The last comma in the list is optional. In most cases, there is no difference in meaning. For example, saying “butter, chicken, and eggs” is the same as saying “butter, chicken and eggs.” The comma that comes before ‘and’ is known as an Oxford comma.
So what does any of this have to do with $10 million dollars and truck drivers? Sometimes, the absence of the Oxford comma can cause confusion. Like when a state overtime law lists activities that don’t qualify for overtime pay as “the canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: (1) Agricultural produce; (2) Meat and fish products; and (3) Perishable foods.”
The $10 million question is this: Is it when someone is ‘packing for shipment or distribution’ that they are exempt, or is an employee exempt when they either pack for shipment or are involved in distribution?
Since drivers were only involved in distribution, they argued that the lack of a comma before “or distribution” meant that only employees who were “packing for shipment or distribution” should be exempt from overtime. Since they were only involved in distribution, and not the packing, the drivers felt that they should be awarded overtime.
Amazingly, the judge agreed with their argument, overturning the previous court ruling.
Since the decision could end up costing Oakhurst Dairy as much as $10 million according to some estimations, it is likely that this ruling will be appealed once more.
Source: nytimes, bna, wgme, justia, bangordailynews, qz, maine, huffingtonpost, cnn
And the lawyers continue to feast on the bones of the plaintiffs.
They’ll make sure to squeeze every penny they can before letting this one go!
Your post is childish and sophomoric.The lawyers are not feasting on the bones of the plaintiffs they are defending the trucker’s rights when no one else will.
Surely you don’t think they’re doing it pro bono, do you? I seriously doubt it. They’ve got their hands in it for a BIG chunk of whatever settlement is finally made or fees for their time in case of a loss.
I still don’t understand why we are excempt from the fair labor and standards act. Trucking is the only industry that’s excempt for fair pay.
It is not the only industry exempt. I believe Ag, and maybe fishing, mining, and oilfield work are also exempt.
I have worked a variety of jobs. It is a whole bunch easier working 70 logbook hours per week trucking than it is to work 50-60 hours a week on a shop floor or even behind a computer.
You are not exempt from the entire FLSA. You are exempt from the overtime provision of the FLSA. Many professionals such as doctors, architects and lawyers are exempt from the overtime provisions of FLSA.
That is the sad part! We or the drivers get screwed over and everyone else gets their pay for every minute they are on the clock! If the truck is not moving, but the driver is still on the job and not relieved from duty, then why should we not get paid for being on the clock!!! It is only Fair!!
Trucking is over worked and under paid. I am not a sue happy person so I don’t entertain these drivers as doing something good for us but I can understand. I do agree we are under paid. Owner operators are under paid brokers steal from us and so do carriers but you agree to the contract when you sign it and when you work for a company as a driver and you agree to the pay terms then you sir have agreed to no over time and have no legitimate argument in court. Working for someone for 10 years to go and sue them for over time pay is nothing more than a get rich quick scheme and going to hurt this industry that much more
As a proud business owner and an owner operator, how do I steal from you? You must be a company driver that fears the risk of owning a truck, or did in the past and failed. I’ve only been in the industry 10 years. Less than a year in, I bought my first truck which I still have. I have only leased to two carriers, the current one since January 2010. I’m far from overworked and under paid. I had six weeks paid vacation last year, made over 90k in personal income and business profits. I pay all of my wifes and myself health insurance, all vision and dental paid out of pocket. Last year I contributed over 20k to my 401k and 6.5k to each of our Roths. Trucking has been good to my family, thank you.
All your wifes! I thought we were only allowed one wife.
6 weeks paid vacation and you are an owner operator.. Sure you are.. It is not like I am calling you a liar, but well I guess I am calling you a liar aren’t I. Companies give employees paid vacation in some circumstances, Owner operators park their truck and take time off and often work on the truck during that time, part of it anyway but the truck is not hauling and therefore not generating revenue which translates into not getting paid. You are an employee..
My business is a Subchapter S corp. Yes I’m both an employee and officer of the corporation. I receive a paycheck every week whether I work or not. How, because I factor in basing my year on generating revenue 45 weeks certain expenses 52 of which I’m one. While I may not be making money when on vacation, I don’t have some operating costs to pay either. Doesn’t matter to me whether you believe me, I do it. While retaining earnings in an s corp, the pass through is taxed at my personal rate. There’s no FICA or Medicare except on retained earnings, just salary. Perfectly legit. Some of the time I do work on my, other times I schedule local to do what I don’t want or can’t do. That’s factored into my annual maintenence amount. It’s not difficult to be successfull if you have consistent revenue, a budget, a plan, and the discipline to stick to it.
When you agree to do a job of X pay, you should not be able to sue for back pay because you think you should have gotten more after the fact. If you don’t like the working condition or reimbursement, don’t take the job. It really is that simple.
Had the employer known they would be paying these people overtime, they would have been offered a lower base pay to take that into account. There was no maliciousness here on the part of the employer, so they should not be getting hammered over an ambiguous law. If the judges agree that these drivers are eligible for overtime, they should get it going forward with renegotiated pay scales. This stinks of lawyers convincing truckers they should be getting payed twice so the lawyers can take a huge chunk of the unearned bonus. These truckers are pawns to the people who did zero work that will likely get filthy rich.
Please Judicial System, If you care about Justice declare a $0 award so these leaches get nothing!
Bless these drivers and their lawyers, someone is looking after us. I wish they got it in cash delivered home with apologies. Drivers deserve fair and honest wages. Anyone thinking otherwise should burn in hell
Robots picking fruit!?!?! Kill two birds with one stone!!
THERE’S AN IDEA!!!!
$90k net income as business owner? That’s ripoff buddy… you can easily make more then that just being company driver plus all the free benefits. Driving for 10 years you should make at least $$150k net.
I made $101k gross just being company driver and I only been in trucking for 3 years.
Show me where a company driver nets more than 90k after taxes as the norm or average, you can’t. The average company or even truck driver is much lower. All my insurance, etc is paid before that and our over 30k into 401k and Roths. If I were to add back in retirement which I factor as a cost, that puts it well over 100k.
Yea, and if they win, Oakhurst Dairy ends up filing bankruptcy because they can’t take a $10 million dollar hit, the drivers and the employees of Oakhurst Dairy all loose their jobs and the lawyers move on to their next victim.
No industry should be exempt…after 40 hrs it’s overtime. Stop trying to screw the employed people!!!
I’ve been driving for over 40 yrs..been an owner operator, and a company driver..and now and owner operator again..there are trucking companies that do pay you for your “on the clock ” time..you just have to do the research and find them..and they do pay overtime as well..I left because I didn’t like being watched that close..if I stopped to grab a cup of coffee..they hollered Cuz I used 10 minutes of “their” time..if I had to go to the bathroom I’d better do it on my time..not theirs..my body is not regulated to a clock!!!!
I think all company are liars they run you in to the ground & get away with paying. By the miles with know over time ?yes driver do it or you don’t work most company are about the same on driveing cross country I finely hot smart. & went & got A job paying by hour & overtime the company that are cross country. & paying by miles need to be taught a lesson there driver are just a number they will fire in a second. & found another. Number