OOIDA voices concerns over Weil’s nomination to Wage and Hour Division

Pointing to his record on worker classification issues, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association voiced concerns regarding David Weil’s nomination to lead the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division.

Weil, who served as the head of the Wage and Hour Division for three years under President Barack Obama, was nominated for the role by President Joe Biden in June. In January, a Senate committee advanced his nomination with an 11-10 party-line vote.

OOIDA wrote to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Friday, Feb. 18, voicing its concerns on what Weil’s confirmation could mean for true owner-operators in the trucking industry.

“During Dr. Weil’s previous tenure as head of the Wage and Hour Division, he issued policies that sought to expand the definition of ‘employee’ as broadly as possible,” OOIDA wrote in the letter signed by President and CEO Todd Spencer. “If confirmed, we believe he would likely pursue similar policies that could limit truckers’ ability to continue using the owner-operator model as they have for decades.”

OOIDA has opposed California’s ABC Test, which would make it difficult for any truck driver leased to a trucking company to be considered an independent contractor. The Association said that there is a misclassification problem in the trucking industry but that there is no one-size-fits-all solution.

“Implementing sweeping changes, such as the ABC Test, would disrupt the livelihoods of thousands of truckers,” OOIDA wrote. “But even less drastic changes that ignore years of precedent and fail to account for the specific needs of owner-operators would cause confusion and possibly force small businesses to abandon their model. Owner-operators would no longer have the freedom to determine how and when they want to perform their work.”

Instead of sweeping changes to worker classification in the trucking industry, OOIDA said the administration should look to the truth-in-leasing regulations that the Association helped establish.

“We believe that some of the problems with the mistreatment and misclassification of truckers could be addressed if the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration would show any interest in enforcing these rules,” OOIDA wrote.

The full Senate will next take up Weil’s nomination. Weil will likely need every Democratic senator’s vote to be confirmed.

“We stand ready to work with senators to address misclassification and improve working conditions in the trucking industry,” OOIDA wrote. “But we believe that Dr. Weil’s confirmation would make it difficult to fix these issues in a way that benefits America’s hard-working truckers.” LL