This past month’s headline developments involve three major developments in the area of independent contractor (IC) misclassification. The first case involves a large department store that agreed to pay most of the costs of...more
4/6/2015
/ Adult Entertainment ,
Class Action ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Franchises ,
Independent Contractors ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Lyft ,
Macy's ,
Misclassification ,
Retailers ,
Trucking Industry ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour
This month’s headline developments are a set of cases reported in February dealing with class action IC misclassification claims: the highest court in a key state agreeing to decide whether a worker-friendly test should be...more
On February 1, 2015, the Joint Enforcement Task Force on Employee Misclassification issued its Annual Report. The Report noted that the New York Task Force members in 2014 conducted over 12,000 audits and investigations,...more
A number of our blog posts since October 2010, including our monthly updates beginning in November 2012, have included reports on class action lawsuits by exotic dancers against strip clubs. This industry has, by far, the...more
The President released his Fiscal Year 2016 Budget today, February 2, 2015. In furtherance of the President’s budget request, the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division provided a 32-page budget justification to Congress...more
2/4/2015
/ Barack Obama ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employer Mandates ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Budget ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Popular ,
Wage and Hour
JANITORIAL FRANCHISE COMPANY SETTLES ITS APPEAL OF $4.8 MILLION JUDGMENT IN FAVOR OF MISCLASSIFIED CUSTODIANS. Coverall North America Inc. settled the independent contractor misclassification case filed against it by a class...more
2/3/2015
/ ABC Test ,
Class Action ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Construction Industry ,
Construction Workers ,
Cooperation Agreement ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Franchise Agreements ,
Franchises ,
Independent Contractors ,
Lowes ,
Misclassification ,
Retailers ,
Trucking Industry ,
Wage and Hour
More than a year ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in an independent contractor misclassification class action, asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to articulate the test that judges should apply in state...more
A $6.5 million settlement between Lowe’s Home Centers and a class of its home improvement contractors was approved by a federal court judge in California earlier this week. The contractors claim that they had been...more
The Florida Department of Revenue is the latest state agency to sign a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Labor seeking to prevent employees from being misclassified as independent contractors (ICs). This...more
SUPPLIER OF INSTALLATION SERVICES FOR LARGE SATELLITE TV COMPANY CANNOT DISMISS IC MISCLASSIFICATION CLAIM BY INSTALLER. A federal district court in Mississippi last month denied cross-motions for summary judgment in an FLSA...more
1/6/2015
/ Adult Entertainment ,
Class Action ,
Construction Industry ,
Consultants ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Misclassification ,
Popular ,
Staffing Agencies ,
Trucking Industry
This month’s headline developments are two independent contractor misclassification class action lawsuits: one was filed in New York against a Silicon Valley giant, Google Inc., and the second was filed in California against...more
12/3/2014
/ Adult Entertainment ,
Appeals ,
Class Action ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Google ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Offshore Drilling ,
Oil & Gas ,
Popular ,
Silicon Valley ,
Startups ,
Trucking Industry ,
Wage and Hour
- TAX COURT DECISION REMINDS COMPANIES THAT “OFFICERS” ARE STATUTORY EMPLOYEES AND THEREFORE CANNOT BE INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS. The United States Tax Court held that a company that was engaged in the buying, reconditioning,...more
This month’s headline developments are the crescendo of cases finding against FedEx Ground’s classification of drivers as independent contractors. On the heels of last month’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the...more
In the past week, the Supreme Court of Kansas and the National Labor Relations Board have issued lengthy, comprehensive opinions finding that FedEx misclassified its Home Delivery and Ground Division drivers as independent...more
On September 28, 2014, Governor Jerry Brown of California signed a bill that puts a potentially enormous liability risk on companies that use workers supplied by “labor contractors” that fail to pay all wages due the workers....more
Today’s online edition of New York Magazine’s “Daily Intelligencer” includes a comprehensive article on how Silicon Valley start-up tech companies using “the 1099 model” may be exposed to employment, tax, and benefit law...more
The news from Washington, D.C. yesterday is that the U.S. Department of Labor is funding 19 states’ efforts to crack down on businesses that unwittingly or intentionally fail to make unemployment contributions for individuals...more
This month’s headline development are the seismic decisions, issued on August 27, 2014 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, concluding as a matter of law that FedEx Ground had misclassified over 2,300 drivers...more
9/3/2014
/ AFL-CIO ,
Appeals ,
Class Action ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Construction Industry ,
Discrimination ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Executive Orders ,
FedEx ,
Independent Contractors ,
Lyft ,
Misclassification ,
Newspapers ,
Trucking Industry ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour
FedEx Ground has been at the epicenter of the crackdown on IC misclassification by government regulators, state legislators, and plaintiffs’ class action lawyers since 2007, when a California appellate court found...more
The leading development this month in the area of independent contractor compliance and misclassification is an Arizona case that deals with a commonplace event – but one that carries with it the potential for unanticipated...more
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) announced on November 12, 2013 that he had introduced a bill called the Payroll Fraud Prevention Act of 2013 at a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety. The bill is yet...more
In September 2011 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced a new voluntary relief program for worker status termed the voluntary classification settlement program (VCSP). Announcement 2011-64, 2011-41, I.R.B. 503. On...more
Many due diligence reviews in mergers, acquisitions and investments have ignored the issue of independent contractor (IC) misclassification liability. This is a difficult exposure to identify unless the legal team digs below...more
Yesterday, December 12, 2012, Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) introduced a bill that bears many similarities to a bill introduced earlier this year by 33 Democrats. The Independent Contractor Tax Fairness and Simplification Act...more