Keep On Truckin’ . . . In Arbitration.
We have posted before about the “Berman hearing”, named after Congressman Howard Berman, and providing workers with a procedure intended to provide “a speedy, informal, and affordable method of resolving wage claims” with the California Labor Commissioner. Under California law, it cannot be waived. However, if there is an arbitration clause governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, which preempts state law, then employers may use the arbitration clause to preempt the state Berman hearing. That is what ultimately happened in Performance Team Freight Systems, Inc. v. Garcia, B259146 (2/2 Nov. 2, 2015) (Boren, Ashmann-Gerst, Chavez) (published), where a trucking company, prior to commencement of Berman hearings, petitioned to compel arbitration with truck drivers filing wage claims.
The trial court had denied the petition, ruling that the agreements fell under an FAA exemption for transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce. Section 1 of the FAA exempts from FAA coverage “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce” – and it has been held that transportation workers are included in this exemption. Without determining whether the truckers, who may have been involved mostly in intrastate short-hauls were truly involved in interstate commerce, the Court of Appeal concluded that they had not met their burden of establishing that the the subject agreements were “contracts of employment.”
And that leads us to the burden of proof. The party opposing arbitration bears the burden of demonstrating the exemption to FAA coverage applies. The agreements under which the truckers worked were labeled “Independent Contractor Agreements”. The Court of Appeal stuck with the label “independent contractor” because “only minimal evidence was presented to the trial court relevant to the issue of whether the subject agreements were contracts of employment.”
The Court also had little trouble finding that the clause was broad enough to cover the dispute. Reversed.
COMMENT: The law respects form less than substance. However, labels, light as they may be, are not weightless. When minimal evidence is presented on whether a worker is a contractor or an employee, the label may tip the balance, as it did here.
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