California law protects port drivers
A new California law has been touted as a means to bolster a 2018 state law to deter trucking operations from misclassifying truck drivers who haul cargo from the state’s ports.
The 3-year-old law, SB1402, discourages shippers from using port drayage motor carriers who have unpaid wage, tax, and worker’s compensation liabilities.
The rule requires joint and several liability for customers who contract with port drayage carriers that have unsatisfied judgments regarding unpaid wages, damages, expenses, penalties, and workers’ compensation liability.
The state labor commissioner is charged with creating a list of trucking companies to show which have failed to pay final judgments. Retailers that hire port trucking companies with final judgments would be liable for future state labor and employment law violations.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed into law a revision that creates and expands reporting of trucking operations found to violate state laws on driver classification, other health and safety violations and any liability owed to the state.
Previously SB338, the rule change expands the types of violations that cause a contractor to be placed on the “bad actor” list to include a final order from the Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board finding that the employer committed a violation.
Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, said the revision will “put an end to the chronic exploitation of port truck drivers in California once and for all.”
“Port truck drivers are at the front and center of the ports and goods movement,” Gonzalez said in prepared remarks. “They are the backbone of our economy and have been systematically exploited by big companies.”
OOIDA supported 2018 law
OOIDA continues to review changes to the 2018 law, which it supported.
Mike Matousek, OOIDA’s director of state legislative affairs, has said many of California’s port drayage drivers are mistreated. He cited the long hours drivers work in “awful conditions” while being “utterly undercompensated.”
He said SB1402 addresses concerns about lease-purchase agreements without jeopardizing legitimate business agreements between motor carriers and leased owner-operators. LL