NLRB v. FRIENDLY CAB CO.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today released an opinion in NLRB v. FRIENDLY CAB CO., No. 05-73752, an administrative appeal. The panel consisted of Jane R. Roth, Sidney R. Thomas, and Consuelo M. Callahan, Circuit Judges.
CALLAHAN, Circuit Judge:
Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act (”the Act”) to protect the right of employees to participate in collective bargaining for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment. See 29 U.S.C. ยง 151. In an effort to avoid an application of the Act and its concomitant collective bargaining requirement, Friendly Cab Company, Inc. (”Friendly”) maintains that its taxicab drivers are independent contractors, rather than employees, and are therefore excluded from the protections of the Act. After conducting an unfair labor practice proceeding, the National Labor Relations Board (”NLRB” or “Board”) concluded that Friendly’s taxicab drivers are employees and that Friendly violated the Act by refusing to meet and engage in collective bargaining with the East Bay Taxi Drivers Association (”Union”). Friendly now seeks review of that decision. Acting pursuant to the jurisdiction that Congress granted under Section 10 of the Act, we affirm the well-reasoned conclusion of the NLRB that Friendly’s drivers are employees within the meaning of the Act. This conclusion is supported by substantial evidence that Friendly exercised considerable control over the means and manner of its drivers’ performance and did not provide its drivers the ability to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. I. Background Friendly, along with six other taxicab entities, operates out of a facility in Oakland, California, and is under the control of Surinder Singh, the chief administrator, and her husband, . . .