One of the nation’s largest trucking companies has agreed to a massive settlement to be paid out to nearly 20,000 current and former truck drivers following a ten year legal battle.
According to legal documents filed on March 11, Swift Transportation and a class action group of truck drivers agreed to settle an employment misclassification lawsuit for $100 million.
More then 19,000 former and current Swift drivers could be eligible to join the class action suit. The average payout will be about $5000 per driver, though the exact amount depends on how long the driver worked for Swift. Drivers who worked for Swift as long ago as 1999 could be eligible for a payout.
The settlement ends a decade long legal battle that began in December of 2009 when a group of truckers filed suit against Swift Transportation in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. This suit made the claim that the drivers were misclassified as independent contractors and were therefore unfairly denied certain labor benefits like guaranteed minimum wage for all hours worked.
Court documents claim that Swift was actively working to settle the lawsuit following the company’s merger with Knight Transportation in 2017.
“[Swift Transportation] ultimately generated an exceptional $100 million-plus-dollar fund for the class of thousands of drivers and may potentially result in changes to the industry that could benefit all misclassified drivers. Their actions ultimately generated an exceptional $100 million-plus-dollar fund for the class of thousands of drivers and may potentially result in changes to the industry that could benefit all misclassified drivers,” said attorney Dan Getman, who represents the truck drivers.