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funds to pay TLC’s payroll obligation, the exclusive lease
agreement required each trucking company client to pay a $650
deposit to TLC, an amount TLC intended to approximate TLC’s
payroll obligation for each driver-employee for one week.
Respondent counters that “the source of the funds used by
the Trucking Companies to pay TLC” is irrelevant because “Solvent
businesses necessarily pay recurring expenses out of income.”
According to respondent, what is relevant is that “there was no
escrow or reimbursement arrangement, only the payment of a flat
fee.”
We have found that, for each payroll period with respect to
each driver-employee, TLC was obligated to, and did, pay such
driver-employee his or her net wages and any per diem amounts,
regardless of whether the trucking company client to which TLC
leased such driver-employee paid TLC the lease fee. We have also
found that each payroll period each trucking company client paid
TLC a lease fee that was not broken down into component parts,
which TLC used to cover its costs and generate a profit. The
method by which each trucking company client paid TLC the lease
fee to compensate TLC for leasing driver-employees to such
trucking company client is not a factor indicating that each
trucking company client, and not TLC, was the employer of the
driver-employees whom it leased from TLC. It is common business
practice for a business to use moneys received from its clients
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