Darn it, darn it, darn it. I was born in the totally wrong era.
The Court of Appeal decides a case today involving a class action brought against the Copley Press, which publishes the San Diego Union Tribune, in which the plaintiffs claimed -- and won -- that the U-T's newspaper delivery people were employees rather than independent contractors. The Court of Appeal reverses a tiny bit of that victory and remands, but in large part, the merits are affirmed.
Which bums me out, because I too was an alleged "independent contractor" in my youth. Albeit a newspaper delivery person for the Washington Post back in Virginia. Back in the days -- and this demonstrates my advanced age -- in which we delivered newspapers by walking door to door, or by riding our bikes, rather than by driving our vehicles. (Not that my brother and I were old enough to drive anyway. We were probably twelve or fourteen at the time.)
I'd have been part of a successful class action! Maybe, anyway. I could definitely have used the money at the time. Especially since I was the worst -- literally, the worst -- at the actual "collecting the subscription dues" part of the job. I bet I worked for a year, getting up super early, and made a total of $10. Because I had to pay for the papers, I had to collect from the subscribers, and to the degree there was any shortfall in the latter, that was my problem, not the Washington Post's.
Memories of a misspent youth in Virginia.
