TQL Overtime Lawsuit: Ruling, CEO Liability, and Back Pay

A federal judge ruled in September 2023 that Total Quality Logistics violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by refusing to pay overtime to more than 4,500 former trainees and junior account executives, and the TQL overtime lawsuit also held CEO Ken Oaks personally liable for the unpaid wages. The decision in Hendricks v. Total Quality Logistics, LLC found that the company misclassified these workers as exempt administrative employees when their real job was performing the core production work of a freight brokerage. A dollar figure has not yet been set, and no payments to workers have been reported.¹²

Who the Case Covers and What They Claimed

Robert Hendricks filed the case on September 21, 2010, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio before Judge Michael R. Barrett.³ It proceeded as a collective action under the FLSA and a class action under Ohio’s Minimum Fair Wage Standards Act, with Nichols Kaster, PLLP and Meizlish & Grayson representing the workers.⁴

Two groups of employees are covered. Logistics Account Executive Trainees, or LAETs, spent roughly 22 weeks learning the business under a mentor. Junior Logistics Account Executives were newly promoted from the trainee ranks but still paid on a salary-only basis. Both groups regularly worked more than 40 hours per week, in line with TQL’s “24/7/365” service expectation, but received no overtime because TQL classified them as exempt.²⁵

The eligible class covers people who worked in these roles in Ohio between September 21, 2008, and April 15, 2016.⁴

Why the Court Rejected TQL’s Exemption Argument

TQL argued its trainees and junior account executives fell under the FLSA’s administrative exemption, which covers employees whose primary duties involve management or general business operations and who exercise discretion and independent judgment. The plaintiffs argued the workers were doing production work: cold calling potential customers, prospecting for business, booking carriers, and overseeing shipments from inside TQL’s offices under close supervision.⁶

After a two-week bench trial in February and March 2022, Judge Barrett ruled on September 26, 2023, that the workers were production employees, not administrators. Applying the administrative-production dichotomy, the court found that LAETs and Junior LAEs were building loads, booking carriers, and overseeing transportation, which is TQL’s core business. Their duties were “not directly related to the management or general business operations of TQL or TQL’s customers.”⁶

TQL tried to lean on a case involving truck dispatchers at Werner Trucking, where dispatchers were found exempt because they handled supervisory functions like personnel management and safety compliance. Judge Barrett rejected the comparison. TQL’s trainees did not manage the truck drivers, who worked for independent carriers rather than TQL. Even setting aside the production-versus-administration analysis, the court found that cold calling, prospecting, and arranging shipments did not qualify as administrative servicing of the kind performed in finance, legal, or human resources functions.⁶

CEO Ken Oaks Held Personally Liable

An unusual feature of the ruling is that Judge Barrett held CEO Ken Oaks personally liable for the unpaid overtime. Oaks testified that the decision to classify trainees and junior account executives as salaried exempt employees was his, and that he had relied on guidance from the Transportation Intermediaries Association, a trade group for freight brokers.¹

TQL tried to avoid liquidated damages by arguing Oaks had acted in good faith. Judge Barrett rejected that defense, writing that “good faith cannot be established merely by conforming with industry standards.” The TIA itself had clarified that its general industry guidance was not intended to be the sole basis for a member company’s legal decisions. Without the good-faith defense, the court held that TQL owes liquidated damages equal to the actual unpaid overtime, effectively doubling the FLSA portion of the eventual payout.¹

How Much Workers Are Owed and When They Might Be Paid

The September 2023 ruling settled liability but did not set a dollar amount. Lead attorney Bruce Meizlish told reporters, “at this point, we don’t know what the actual damages number could be.”² Judge Barrett directed the parties to submit a briefing schedule for damages, pre- and post-judgment interest, costs, and attorney’s fees.⁷

Damages will come in two parts. Workers are owed time and a half for every hour worked beyond 40 per week. On top of that, the FLSA liquidated damages finding adds an amount equal to those unpaid wages. The Ohio state law claims do not allow recovery beyond the actual wages owed.²

Progress has been slow. As of mid-2024, the parties had filed competing motions over the scope, format, and timing of exchanging damage-related information. Plaintiffs’ counsel expected a damages trial in 2025 or early 2026, though the parties disagreed on the timeline.⁴ TQL spokeswoman Julie Fulton said the company would “pursue all available legal options,” signaling that further challenges remain possible.⁸ No final judgment on damages and no payments to workers have been reported.

The Separate Illinois Case

Workers outside Ohio were not part of the Hendricks class. A separate collective action, Hudgins et al v. Total Quality Logistics LLC, was filed in 2016 in the Northern District of Illinois, raising similar misclassification claims for LAEs and LAETs who earned a $35,000 base salary and worked more than 40 hours per week.⁹

The Illinois court conditionally certified two collective classes, one for LAETs and one for LAEs, excluding people who had already joined the Ohio action or who earned above $100,000 annually. The court also denied TQL’s attempt to compel arbitration.⁹ In 2024, the court sanctioned TQL for failing to disclose that the Department of Labor had been investigating whether the company properly paid overtime to workers in Tampa, Florida, and Columbus, Ohio, ordering TQL to pay the plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees.¹⁰ The case was terminated in December 2024, according to court records, though details of the resolution were not publicly reported.¹¹

Why This Ruling Matters Beyond TQL

Other freight brokerages have faced similar FLSA collective actions over the classification of account executives and logistics coordinators. GlobalTranz Enterprises was sued in 2021 by employees alleging that scheduling pickups and deliveries, tracking shipments, and handling customer service were misclassified as exempt. That complaint noted GlobalTranz had already faced two prior lawsuits over the same issue.¹²

Freight brokerages have commonly treated account executives as administrative employees exempt from overtime, while courts examining the question have frequently found the work is core production. Most of these cases settle before a published opinion. The Hendricks ruling stands out because it went through a full bench trial and produced a detailed judicial analysis of why the exemption does not fit these roles.²

1
Landline Media. TQL Ordered to Pay Thousands of Employees Unpaid Overtime Wages
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FreightWaves. Judge Rules TQL Owes Thousands of Former Employees Overtime Pay
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CourtListener. Hendricks v. Total Quality Logistics, LLC
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Nichols Kaster. Total Quality Logistics LLC
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Cincinnati Magazine. Total Quality Logistics: Ships Until They Drop
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CaseMine. Hendricks v. Total Quality Logistics, LLC
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Yahoo Finance. Judge Rules TQL Owes Thousands of Former Employees Overtime Pay
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Cincinnati Enquirer. Total Quality Logistics Loses Overtime Case Involving 4500 Workers
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GovInfo. Hudgins et al v. Total Quality Logistics LLC
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Bloomberg Law. Total Quality Logistics Sanctioned Over Discovery in Wage Suit
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CourtListener. Hudgins v. Total Quality Logistics LLC
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ClassAction.org. Daklin et al v. GlobalTranz Enterprises, LLC