U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
Attorneys at Leonard Carder and at Rukin Hyland have brought two lawsuits on behalf of a group of bread distributors working in California for Flowers Foods companies. The distributors allege the contracts misclassify them as “independent contractors” and “franchisees,” when, in fact that work as Flowers’ employees. They contend that Flowers’ controls the work — who they serve, what products to carry, how to stock the product, among other things — and that the work is central to Flowers’ business, making them employees, not independent contractors.
If the distributors are employees under the law (regardless of the contract-label), then they can potentially recover their out-of-pocket costs running their routes (including fuel, maintenance, repairs, insurance on their vehicles; charges for stale and lost product; handheld computer device rentals; cell phones; and other forms of insurance), premium pay for Flowers’ failure to provide off-duty meal and paid rest periods, overtime and minimum wage pay, interest, penalties, and attorneys’ fees and costs. Both cases are on-going in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.