Employer Can’t Have It Both Ways Independent Contractors.

Defendant’s business arranges for transportation of cargo from the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports to warehouses, and plaintiffs are truck drivers. Prior to implementation of a clean air program at the ports in 2008, truck drivers generally owned their own trucks and worked as independent contractors. After the clean air program was implemented, older higher-emission trucks were no longer permitted at the ports, so defendant purchased trucks to comply with the new rules. But defendant continued to treat the drivers as independent contractors, requiring them to enter into lease agreements for the use of the trucks and deducting lease and insurance payments from their paychecks. Plaintiffs brought this action to recover those deductions on the basis they are now employees and not independent contractors. Both the Labor Commissioner and the Superior Court held the drivers are now employees and not independent contractors. The Superior Court awarded damages to the truck drivers. Stating the principal test of an employment relationship is whether the person to whom service is rendered has the right to control the manner and means of accomplishing the result desired, the Court of Appeal affirmed.  (Garcia v. Seacon Logix (Cal. App. Second Dist., Div. 4; July 30, 2015) 238 Cal.App.4th 1476 [190 Cal.Rptr.3d 400].)