FedEx contractors lose labor appeal

New York —- A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that a unit of FedEx Corp. didn’t break federal labor laws when it refused to negotiate with a union that was bargaining on behalf of some of its workers who want to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors.

The vote overturned an earlier ruling by the National Labor Relations board regarding the Massachusetts based workers of FedEx Ground Package System Inc. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters had filed petitions to the board in 2006 alleging the company’s failure to bargain.

The company maintains these workers should be classified as independent contractors because they are allowed to own multiple routes. As contractors, workers don’t get benefits, are responsible for their own equipment and are precluded from directly organizing under federal labor laws.

FedEx has about 13,000 of such employees nationwide.

“The court determined that the company had provided clear evidence that FedEx Ground contractors are properly classified as independent contractors,” FedEx spokesman Maury Lane said.

“Court decisions like this and a recent state court decision in Washington State confirm that FedEx Ground contractors are independent business owners who choose to own and operate their own enterprises as they like,” Lane said.

He said that, while this ruling has no bearing on cases in other states, it’s a big step in the right direction for the company’s model.

“This is a good indication from a very high court that our independent-contractor model is valid,” Lane said. “What we’re hearing is that it’s not against the law to work for yourself and we continue to hear more validation of that.”