The National Labor Relations Board (Board or NLRB) could reverse a 2019 decision holding that honest, albeit mistaken, classification decisions and announcements to employees do not violate the National Labor Relations Act (the NLRA). On March 17, 2022, General Counsel of the NLRB issued a Complaint against Deco Logistics, Inc. d/b/a Container Connection and its affiliates (collectively Deco Logistics), alleging that Deco Logistics violated the NLRA by misclassifying drivers as independent contractors as well as other conduct that allegedly violated the workers’ Section 7 rights to organize, such as interrogating a driver about union activities and retaliating against drivers for assisting the union’s organizing campaign. The Complaint seeks an affirmative order that Deco Logistics reclassify its independent contractors as employees, and compensation for any harm the workers incurred as a result of the misclassification as independent contractors.
The GC issued the Complaint apparently in hopes of overturning the Board’s previous decision in Velox Express, Inc., 368 NLRB No. 61 (2019), which addressed the issue of whether the sole act of misclassifying drivers as independent contractors violates the NLRA. There, the Board concluded that misclassification of drivers as independent contractors (and communicating the classification), on its own, did not violate the NLRA. Although the Board held that Velox ultimately misclassified its drivers as independent contractors, it...
In the summer of 2023, northern Ontario ironworker Jonathon Pearce filed bogus tax returns to the Canada Revenue Agency, falsely claiming he was owed refunds going back several years totalling mor...