California High Court Delivers for Newspaper Carriers, Affirming a Misclassification Class

California newspaper carriers may bring a class action asserting they were misclassified as independent contractors, but their overtime and break claims require individualized inquiries that cannot be managed as a class, the California Supreme Court affirmed June 30 (Ayala v. Antelope Valley Newspapers, Inc., 2014 BL 181910, Cal., S206874, 6/30/14).

Antelope Valley Newspapers Inc. publishes a daily newspaper and contracts with individual carriers to deliver the paper to its subscribers. Three individual carriers filed an action claiming they were misclassified as independent contractors and were actually employees entitled to overtime pay and other wage and hour provisions ...