A lawsuit has been filed against Tacoma, Wash.-based Interstate Distributor Co. alleging that it has unlawfully failed to pay overtime wages to its interstate drivers.
Larry Westberry, a former long-term employee of Interstate Distributor, claims that the company broke state law by paying him same amount per mile even when he worked more than 40 hours a week. According to Stephen Strong, a partner at the law firm Bendich Stobaugh and Strong, Washington-based employers are required to pay their employees one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay when they work more than 40 hours per week, even if the work is performed out of state.
The lawsuit seeks to obtain back pay for all of Interstate Distributor's truck drivers who worked overtime but weren't paid time-and-a-half.
Interstate Distributor Co. is ranked as the 43rd largest for hire carrier in the U.S and Canada by the American Trucking Associations, with about 2,400 company drivers, 150 owner-operators and about 3,000 trailers.
The suit derives from a 2007 decision by the Washington State Supreme Court awarding back pay to a truck driver whose employer failed to pay him overtime even though he averaged 48 hours of work per week, including time clocked out of state. The trucking industry was unsuccessful in attempts to get that case overturned; the state Supreme Court upheld the decision, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Former Washington Supreme Court Justice Philip Talmadge, now an attorney in private practice, represented the trucking companies in that case. In a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Bostain decision, Talmadge said, "Washington's expansive interpretation of its overtime wage law will likely compel motor carriers to restrict the hours of interstate truck drivers, alter their routes to avoid exposure to overtime wage claims, and perhaps to move their operations from Washington."
The Interstate Distributor suit follows on the heels of Washington Trucking Associations efforts to address the issue. In its May newsletter, the WTA reported that the Department of Labor & Industries filed a proposed rule change May 6 that would allow motor carriers to demonstrate that their compensation plans in place by March 1, 2007, contain reasonable equivalent compensation for overtime.
Lawsuit Alleges Washington Trucking Company Must Pay Overtime 
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