Recognizing that the FedEx independent contractor class action lawsuit “is of great importance not just to this case but to the structure of the American workplace”, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit has requested input from the Kansas Supreme Court on whether FedEx drivers are improperly classified as independent contractors in Craig v. FedEx Ground Package System, Inc., No. 10-3115 (CA7 July 12, 2012).
Craig v. FedEx Ground Package System, Inc. involves 479 Kansas FedEx drivers who allege that they were improperly classified as independent contractors rather than employees under the Kansas Wage Payment Act. It is one of 21 cases appealed to the 7th Circuit regarding substantially the same issue about whether FedEx misclassified current and former drivers as independent contractors instead of employees. When these class action lawsuits were originally filed in U.S. district courts throughout the United States, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated the actions and transferred them to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. In 2010, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of FedEx, finding that the drivers could not prevail on their claims. The drivers appealed those decisions to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Explaining that when hearing appeals involving diversity, the 7th Circuit’s “task is to ascertain the substantive content of state law as it either has been determined by the highest court of the state or as it would be by that court if the present case were before it now”, the 7th Circuit found that it is not clear how the Kansas Supreme Court would decide the issues currently before the 7th Circuit in Craig as the caselaw is not clear and the Kansas Supreme Court has applied a facts-and-circumstances test when deciding similar issues in previous cases. For these reasons, the 7th Circuit requested the Kansas Supreme Court answer 2 questions, and has stayed all proceedings in the 21 FedEx appeals, including Craig, until it receives answers to those questions from the Kansas Supreme Court.
The questions are:
- 1. Given the undisputed facts presented to the district court in this case, are the plaintiff drivers employees of FedEx as a matter of law under the Kansas Wage Payment Act (KWPA)?
- 2. Drivers can acquire more than one service area from FedEx. See 734 F. Supp. 2d at 574. Is the answer to the preceding question different for plaintiff drivers who have more than one service area?
