TFI International agreed to pay up to $4.75 million to settle class action lawsuit alleging misclassification of employees as independent contractors, according to a court filing last Friday.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include 367 courier drivers who delivered parcels throughout the US for Velocity Express, a firm based in Westport, Conn., that was acquired in 2013 by TFI by through its Dynamex Operations East business line.
The lawsuit was first filed in 2012 with named plaintiffs Philip Flores and Darah Doung, both drivers and residents of Stockton, Calif., claiming they weren’t paid required overtime.
Under the terms of the deal, $1.85 million of the settlement would go to drivers and $2.9 million would go toward attorneys’ fees.
The lawsuit, Flores v. TFI International, was filed in federal court for the Northern District of California. Case No. 3:12-cv-05790-JST.
Related firm Dynamex Operations West was at the center of a separate case in California where the state’s Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that the more restrictive “ABC” test for determining misclassification should be used going forward. Dynamex Operations West’s name has since been changed to TF Final Mile, according to a regulatory filing by TFI International, which has its head office in Saint-Laurent, Québec.
