9th Circuit lets truckers appeal contract workers ruling

Two days after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it would not rehear truck drivers' challenge to California's gig worker law, the court agreed not to enforce the ruling while a trade group files a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court.

If the high court declines to review the case, truckers would immediately be subject to Assembly Bill 5, the 9th Circuit ruled Wednesday. Under the law, truckers will have to pass a three-pronged "ABC" test in order to be classified as independent contractors instead of employees.

The California Trucking Association filed its lawsuit in 2018, shortly after the state Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Dynamex Operations West Inc. v. Superior Court, 4 Cal. 5th 903 (2018). The decision replaced a decades-old worker classification standard with the "ABC" test, which made it harder for workers to qualify as independent contractors. Assembly Bill 5 codified Dynamex into law.

Less than a month after the Assembly bill went into effect in 2020, the California Trucking Association secured the first preliminary injunction to stop its enforcement on independent owner-operator truck drivers.

In April, a divided 9th Circuit panel overturned the district court's decision, ruling the applicability of Assembly Bill 5 to independent owner-operator truck drivers was not preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act. California Trucking Association et al. v. Bonta et al., 2021 DJDAR 3957 (9th Cir. April 28, 2021).

In the motion asking the 9th Circuit to pause the enforcement of Assembly Bill 5 while it petitions the high court, the association's attorney, Miriam R. Nemetz at Mayer Brown LLP, wrote, "It is reasonably likely that four members of the Supreme Court will support a grant of certiorari in this important case; there is a significant possibility that the court will reverse the panel majority's decision; and CTA's members will suffer irreparable harm unless the court stays its mandate."