Approximately 14,000 FedEx Ground/Home Delivery drivers are wrongfully classified as independent contractors, which means they have to buy their own trucks, buy their own gas, and uniforms. It also means FedEx doesn't have to pay workers comp or provide benefits. Independent contractors are forbidden to join unions.

The following is the press release from the driver's attorney:

In a major development, Judge Robert Miller of U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana, today granted class certification on behalf of approximately 14,000 current FedEx Ground/Home Delivery drivers -- as well as upwards of 10,000 former drivers -- across the nation who are challenging the company's embattled independent contractor model.

"This is a landmark decision for workers everywhere serving under sham independent contractor arrangements such as the one exploited by FedEx," said Lynn Rossman Faris, Esq., lead counsel for the drivers who brought separate class-action lawsuits in 36 states that have been consolidated into a multi- district litigation (MDL) before Judge Miller. "The judge's 56-page opinion is compelling on many levels, including its certification of nationwide claims brought under the Employee Retirement Security Act (ERISA), state wage-and- hour and common law claims."

For further information, and to view the Court Opinion and Order in the Kansas case upon which this Advisory is based, go to http://www.fedexdriverslawsuit.com

In California in August 2007, the CA Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling that Ground and Home delivery drivers are employees and not independent contractors. FedEx has responded in California by simply firing all the drivers that were the subject of the court rulings.

FedEx didn't make them employees, they just removed the misclassified drivers to limit future liabilities. And FedEx apppealed the Court of Appeal ruling to the California Supreme Court.

In Washington in September 2007, the National Labor Relations Board ordered FedEx to bargain with Teamsters Local Union 25 over the work conditions of two FedEx Home Delivery Facilities outside Boston, MA.

The Board earlier found these drivers to be employees and ordered an NLRA election; the drivers elected Local 25 as their bargaining representative.

FedEx is now appealing the NLRB rulings before the US Court of Appeal DC Circuit.