BOSTON A high-profile independent contractor case involving FedEx Ground Package System could have implications for thousands of businesses that hire drivers, including motorcoach companies.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has assessed penalties of more than $190,000 against FedEx Ground for what her office claims is an intentional misclassification of 13 drivers as independent contractors rather than as employees.

The attorney general cited FedEx Ground for violating the state's independent contractor law by misclassifying the drivers, failing to provide a proper pay stub, failing to provide worker compensation, not paying overtime to certain drivers, and neglecting to deduct and withhold state income taxes.

In addition to the penalties, the citations require FedEx Ground to rectify the violations and provide restitution to the 13 drivers.

Maury Lane, a spokesman for FedEx, said his firm would appeal the penalty and the determination that it misclassified the workers. He said Fedex has been cooperating with Massachusetts officials over the classification of drivers for several years and there has been no complaint about what it was doing.

"We were surprised," he said of the ruling and penalty. "We believe it is wrong."

He also suggested the ruling could have a "chilling effect" on other industries that hire independent contractors, whom he described as "the backbone of today's economy."

The Massachusetts independent contractor law provides that an individual performing any service is an employee unless the individual is free from control and direction of the employer; the service is performed is outside the usual course of the business of the employer, and the individual customarily works as an independent contractor.

Coakley said her office began its FedEx Ground investigation last summer after receiving a driver complaint. Investigators concluded that FedEx Ground intentionally violated all three prongs of the independent contractor law by directing and controlling the activities of drivers and restricting the drivers ability to deliver for any other entity.

In addition, the investigation found the drivers are performing the core business of FedEx Ground. At least 400 drivers work for FedEx Ground throughout the state.

The attorney general said the investigation into FedEx Ground is ongoing.

An appeal by FedEx would be heard before the Division of Administrative Law Appeals, an administrative agency within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Administration and Finance.