At least one court has stated that the proximity determination creates a presumption of whether a site is a single site. Noncontiguous facilities may be single sites only if there is some connection between the sites beyond common ownership, such as a regular practice of sharing of equipment or employees. This subpart addresses employees who travel from place to place in the course of performing their job. Examples are railroad and airline workers and travelling salespersons. While such workers may well be considered as a separate operating unit, their status must be determined in terms of the single site of employment to which they are assigned.
Several factors influence that decision.
First, and most importantly, as discussed above, the terminals are not contiguous. To the contrary, they are hundreds of miles apart spread over six states. Second, the truckers were assigned to a certain location, and the terminals did not share equipment or the services of truckers. Third, the truckers at each terminal were represented by different unions, and each terminal had its own seniority system. Fourth, each terminal was considered separate by one agency of the federal government, as demonstrated by the separate safety logs required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.