Citing major court-ordered settlements in recent years, trucking industry lobbyists say they plan to leverage fresh Republican control in Washington, D.C., to pass the so-called Denham Amendment, which would prevent enforcement of state-level laws dictating truck drivers’ time and pay, such as those in California, and protect carriers from falling victim to such court orders.
Major proponents include the American Trucking Associations and the Western States Trucking Association, both of whom have said legislation to assert federal authority over break and pay laws for truckers is a top-level agenda item in the coming years. “This actually is our No. 1 priority,” says Western States’ head of government affairs Joe Rajkovacz. “Prohibiting states from involving themselves in the compensation methods in which drivers are paid. Once one of the cases are successfully litigated, all the ‘me-too’ lawsuits start focusing on much smaller motor carriers downstream. It becomes legal blackmail against a small business: ‘Pay us or get sued and taken into court.’”
Opponents of the provision argue the Denham Amendment would be the effective end to efforts to reform and modernize driver pay.
ATA’s Bill Sullivan says his group also will push the issue in the new Congress. ATA has applauded Congressional work in recent years to try to clear Denham Amendment-like language, saying the “patchwork of regulations” that could arise by state-to-state pay reforms “needlessly complicates the lives of millions of professional drivers.” However, efforts to pass the Denham Amendment have ultimately failed each time the measure’s been brought up.
WSTA’s Rajkovacz says the Denham Amendment is needed to block overzealous court decisions that violate the spirit of the federal government’s authority over driver labor laws and that could create a wave of similar lawsuits against carriers acting well within legal industry standards.
Rajkovacz pointed to the $55 million Walmart must pay to former and current drivers for, mostly, time spent in the sleeper during federally required 10-hour breaks. Such court decisions make Congressional action on the Denham Amendment a necessity, he says. “They think employers should be paying a driver for off-duty time that is mandated by federal rules,” he says. “I’m sure there is a contingent within the industry that think this overreach is just fine. They are dead wrong. Almost all money awarded (in the Walmart case) was to drivers sleeping in their bunks.”
The Denham Amendment derives its name from Rep. Jeff Denham, a Republican representing the 10th district of California. He successfully attached the provision to the FAST Act highway bill in 2015, though the provision ultimately failed to make the bill’s final cut. The language popped up several times last year, even in bills only tangentially related to trucking, like the 2016 Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill.
