How much can a day labor employer charge day laborers for transportation to and from their worksites?  The Florida Supreme Court recently decided.

What happened. A man worked as a day laborer at a labor hall operated by Workers Temporary Staffing, Inc. (WTS), which employs 1,500 workers at its Fort Lauderdale branch. WTS charged day laborers $1.50 for a one-way trip and $ 3.00 for a round trip for transportation to jobsites in the Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade County areas.

The man sued WTS, alleging that it had violated the state's Labor Pool Act by overcharging day laborers for transportation to their worksites, because the cost of one-way bus travel on the Broward County Transit system at that time was $1.00, but WTS charged $1.50 each way for its site-to-site transportation. He sought to recover the actual difference in cost ($265.50) as well as statutory damages of $1,000 per violation for each of 177 days on which he said he was overcharged, or $177,000. His claim made its way to the state's highest court.

What the court said. The relevant section of the Labor Pool Act bars labor pools from charging laborers more than a reasonable amount, not to exceed the local prevailing rate for public transportation, for transporting the worker to or from the worksite. The court decided that the plain language of the law showed that the term "reasonable amount" is the centerpiece of that section and that the other language merely provides further meaning on that which may constitute a "reasonable amount." 

Public transportation, operating on fixed routes, could not take workers door-to-door, so WTS had to use its company van. The court said that the cost associated with the distance from the nearest bus stop to the worksite (and vice versa at the end of the workday) must be taken into account to determine whether WTS's door-to-door transportation charge of $1.50 constituted a "reasonable amount." The evidence established that the least-expensive form of site-to-site public transportation would be taxi service, which would have been far more costly and therefore not reasonable within the meaning of the statute. For these reasons, the court decided that WTS was not liable to the man. Liner v. Workers Temporary Staffing, Supreme Court of Florida, No. SC07-1470 (7/31/08).

Point to remember: The court analyzed this case within the meaning of the version of the law in effect at the time, which did not specify a cap of $1.50. In 2006, lawmakers amended the Labor Pool Act to bar labor pools from charging workers more than a reasonable amount for door-to-door transportation, capped by $1.50 each way. That law is in effect now.