An Arkansas federal judge has ruled against P.A.M. trucking in a class-action lawsuit involving 3,000 drivers who argued they should be paid even while sleeping in their trucks.
U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks in Fayetteville issued his ruling denying the Tontitown, Arkansas-based trucking company a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, The trucking company, with nearly 2,000 tractors and 6,000 trailers had sought dismissal of the “sleeper berth” claims.
The move came after some of its drivers filed suit, accusing P.A.M. of violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and the Arkansas Minimum Wage Law. (Case No 5:16-CV-5366)
The company disagreed with a Department of Labor regulation which prohibited the firm from excluding 8 hours from compensation for time a driver spends in a truck’s sleeper berth. By law, commercial truck drivers are prohibited from more than 14 hours of driving in any 24-hour period.
While Judge Brooks admitted the dispute involved a “somewhat tangled web of statutes, agency regulations and agency interpretations of statutes and regulations,” he ruled that whether time spent sleeping or eating should be counted as hours worked has nothing to do with whether the time constitutes actual work.
“It simply turns on whether the employee has been on duty for at least 24 hours.”