A Bristol trucking company has asked Gov. M. Jodi Rell and state lawmakers to intervene in a dispute with the state Labor Department over how workers are defined for tax purposes.
State labor officials are targeting pilot car drivers who escort modular homes, yachts, jet engines and other oversized loads on state highways.
The Labor Department has ruled that pilot car drivers working for Superior Flag Car Inc. are employees, not independent contractors. As a result, Superior Flag Car owes the state $36,276 in back unemployment insurance taxes.
Companies pay taxes for employees, but not contractors.
State labor officials also are investigating Connecticut’s several other pilot car brokers, saying it’s fair to Superior Flag Car.
Brokers and their drivers are furious and have called on Rell and state legislators to intervene. At least one broker has threatened to shut down, leaving drivers without booking agents and trucking firms looking for escorts.
“If they say I owe these back taxes, I’m closing the business,” said Roy LaGrave, owner of Bandit’s Flag Car Service in Prospect, which arranges business for about 15 drivers.
LaGrave claims that his pilot car drivers are independent contractors who use their own vehicles, pay their own expenses and work as they please. The brokers serve as middlemen, linking drivers with trucking companies and manufacturers that are legally required to use escorts when transporting oversized loads.
The state says John Quinto, owner of Superior Flag Car Inc., directs the activity of at least some drivers to a degree that makes them employees under the law.
In addition, the Labor Department said the matter is not as clear-cut as brokers believe.
“It’s entirely possible that somebody could have a combination of independent contractors and employees,” said Jerry Fleming, assistant director of accounts at the Department of Labor.
Quinto lost an appeal in 2004 of a previous Labor Department finding that a driver was an employee. He did not formally appeal the most recent finding, saying he had already spent $19,000 on lawyers and accountants to plead his case.
Quinto said he will stop booking new business immediately while he consults with his lawyer about how to proceed. The Labor Department has offered to reduce his back taxes to $24,698 if he promises to follow the law.
