Across the country, Federal Express is notorious for abusing the classification of ‘independent contractor' in order to keep drivers from organizing into unions, and depriving them of health care benefits, access to unemployment insurance, workers compensation benefits, and in some cases overtime pay. Many drivers have successfully appealed this classification and have gained the right to join a union, but Federal Express has refused to acknowledge that their drivers are in fact company employees--not independent contractors, dragging each individual case through the National Labor Relations Board. Appealing the classification is generally an effort in futility for the company, as the NLRB has ruled on seven different occasions that FedEx drivers are company employees. However, in doing so the company is using a favored union-busting tactic of large corporations--using their vast resources to drag out the process through endless and unnecessary appeals, thus denying justice through delay.

Now though, it is the company who is suffering from their own misguided policy, as the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office recently took the initiative to expose this misclassification before the company has another opportunity to drag it through years of litigation. Attorney General Martha Coakley's office assessed penalties of more than $190,000 against FedEx Ground for intentionally misclassifying thirteen drivers as independent contractors. The investigation represents a proactive approach by the Attorney General's Office, particularly the Fair Labor Division, headed by Assistant Attorney General Joanne Goldstein.

Attorney General Coakley stated, "The practice of misclassification does great harm, not only to misclassified workers and to the Commonwealth in the form of lost revenues, but also by putting law-abiding businesses at a disadvantage. We intend to pursue aggressively employers such as FedEx Ground when they violate the Commonwealth's Independent Contractor Law."

The enforcement of employee misclassification is also a huge victory for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who are organizing FedEx drivers throughout the country. Teamsters Local 25 recently won an organizing victory by proving to the National Labor Relations Board that 39 drivers at two FedEx facilities in Wilmington, MA are employees, not independent contractors. The findings of the Fair Labor Division and the threat of enforcement should prevent any future misclassifications in Massachusetts, making it easier for FedEx drivers to unionize, and forcing FedEx to compete fairly with companies that employ union workers and provide good wages and benefits, such as UPS.

In addition to the Federal Express case, the Fair Labor Division of Attorney General Coakley's office has been ambitious in enforcing the law and levying fines against many other employers who attempt to skirt the laws of the Commonwealth at the expense of workers. Victories include several cases involving wage and classification violations.

In October, the Allstate Company, Inc. pled guilty to charges of failing to pay the prevailing wage, and misclassification of workers as independent contractors on painting work for a public construction project. Arthur Tenaglia, President of the company will face three years probation, and Allstate will pay a $10,000 fine, $15,000 in restitution of wages, and $100,000 restitution to their insurance company. Both Tenaglia and Allstate will be barred from public projects for five years.

Abely Plumbing Company of Lowell and Val Industrial Insulation of Worcester both settled with the Attorney General's office in past months to pay fines and restitution to the order of $20,000 and $37,000 respectively, for prevailing wage violations. Abely had been contracted to provide plumbing services at the University of Massachusetts - Lowell and failed to pay four employees the prevailing wage. They were also found to have misclassified some of their employees. Val Industrial had failed to pay the prevailing wage to one of its employees on a school renovation project in Milford, and it was later discovered that the company had other prevailing wage violations dating back to 2005.

Thanks to the leadership of Attorney General Martha Coakley, and Chief of the Fair Labor Division Joanne Goldstein, employers are being held accountable for obeying the laws of the Commonwealth. These laws help working families by ensuring that good employers who pay good wages and benefits can compete on an even playing field with employers who would exploit workers in an effort to underbid on contracts. Union workers in the building trades, who perform the highest quality work under the safest conditions, rely on these laws to ensure that their training and experience will benefit them, their families, and the entire Commonwealth through quality work on public construction projects.