Trucking companies could owe employee truck drivers pay for every hour spent on the job, including sleeping breaks required by law, under a new court ruling.
The ruling by the U.S. District Court in Fayetteville, Ark., came in an ongoing wage lawsuit against P.A.M. Transport Inc. Issued Friday, it said federal labor laws, not safety rules, should be used to tally for how many hours of work an employee truck driver must be paid.
“The Department of Transportation regulations aim to make our roads safe, while the Department of Labor regulations aim to provide workers adequate compensation,” U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Brooks said in denying P.A.M.’s motion for dismissal of some of the lawsuit’s claims.
“This is big — this is a completely different approach, which says, ‘Look, anytime you are on the road is potentially compensable — every hour you are away from home you deserve minimum wage,’ ” said Steve Viscelli, a truck labor expert and author who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.
P.A.M., based in Tontitown, Ark., and its attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday. The company owned and operated 1,351 trucks on average in the third quarter. It recently posted record quarterly profits of $9.2 million on higher quarterly revenue of $140.3 million.