Carriers sue Sacramento Bee over employment status
By Andy Furillo, The Sacramento Bee | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Plaintiffs in the class-action case say the carriers who delivered the papers between 2005 and 2009 were actually employees of The Bee. If Judge
The plaintiffs filed the suit in 2009, charging that The Bee and its parent
The trial entered its seventh week this week.
"We believe that we've shown a mountain of evidence that the carriers were controlled by
Attorneys for the newspaper company began to present evidence last week.
"
The six named plaintiffs in the case are
"We chose to present our evidence from the top down," Sachs said, "in other words, showing the policies and procedures of The Bee from the top down that applied to all of the carriers instead of telling what one individual carrier's story was."
A trial brief filed by the plaintiffs said the paper was able to fire the carriers "at will." It also noted The Bee provided carriers with route lists and delivery deadlines, showing an employment relationship. The Bee monitored and supervised the carriers, handled customer complaints, set subscription prices and required carriers to buy insurance through the paper's broker, the brief said.
In their brief, attorneys for The Bee said the carriers each signed an "independent contractor agreement" that the paper says established the separate relationship. According to the brief, the carriers could set their own hours and employ subcontractors. It said the paper could only terminate a carrier's contract "for material breach or upon thirty days' notice," not "at will." The state
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