The Burr Broadcast: New Independent Contractor Rule
DE Under 3: US DOL's WHD Published Its “Employee or Independent Contractor” Classification Final Rule
#WorkforceWednesday: Employee Privacy and COVID-19, CMS Vaccine Mandate on Hold, Independent Contractor Classification - Employment Law This Week®
#WorkforceWednesday: New AB5 Exemptions, EEOC COVID-19 Updates, Joint-Employer Rule Partially Struck Down - Employment Law This Week®
Employment Law This Week®: FAA Arguably Preempts California Law, New CA Employment Laws for 2020, CA Consumer Privacy Act Amended
Employment Law This Week®: DOL’s Final Overtime Rule, CA Codifies “ABC Test,” Pay Data Collection Beyond 2018, NLRB’s Busy Summer
Legal Minute: Contractor Misclassification
When playing professional sports in Australia, you’d better watch out for snakes. A venomous red-bellied black snake was spotted on the field at an Australian Football League Women’s match earlier this year, causing an...more
Labor Secretary nominee Julie Su continues to face close scrutiny by Republican members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, at least some of whom believe she is not qualified for the position....more
For businesses using independent contractor vendors, misclassification claims are usually well-suited for class certification. A plaintiff’s path toward certifying a class can be relatively smooth when all vendors of a...more
Summary: Good-faith dispute about employment status of freelancer who modeled in sporadic one- or two-day increments precluded imposition of waiting-time penalties pursuant to Labor Code section 203. ...more
In a December 13, 2021 decision, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court adopted a standard heretofore applied in federal court for determining joint employer status. In Jinks v. Credico (USA) LLC, four plaintiff employees...more
Over the past few years, lower courts in Massachusetts have grappled with determining whether the “ABC test” under the independent-contractor statute provides the proper framework for assessing joint-employment liability. The...more
In a recent decision, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) confirmed that the framework used in federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) cases, not the ABC classification test set forth in Massachusetts’ independent...more
In Jinks v. Credico, an opinion issued on December 13, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declined to extend the application of the state’s highly restrictive independent-contractor statute. The SJC held that the...more
Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court held that to determine whether an entity jointly employs an individual for purposes of the state’s minimum wage and overtime laws, courts should apply the Fair Labor Standards Act’s test,...more
On December 13, 2021, the highest state court in Massachusetts ruled that the proper test for determining joint employer status under the state’s wage and overtime statutes is the “totality of the circumstances” test formerly...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court answered longstanding questions about which entities may be jointly responsible for wage violations under Massachusetts law, and in so doing, highlighted the perils...more
On December 13, 2021, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) held that the multifactor standard of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and not the Massachusetts Independent Contractor Law’s “ABC test,” determines...more
In recent blogs, we identified serious threats to the franchise industry – the Protect the Right to Organize (“PRO”) Act, joint employer standards, state ABC laws, and the new Biden Administration guard at the Department of...more
The California version of the ABC test is arguably the most hostile to franchising. Nonetheless, the risk is not confined to California. This is because the ABC employee classification test, with variations, has been...more
On July 29, 2021, the United States Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced that it would rescind the Trump-era rule (the “Joint Employer Rule”) pertaining to the determination of joint employers for purposes of assigning...more
On March 22, 2021, former two-term Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was confirmed as U.S. Secretary of Labor in a 68-29 Senate vote. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) supported Walsh’s nomination as Secretary of Labor due in...more
The Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021 (also known as the “PRO Act”) is back with its laundry list of organized labor’s most-wanted government handouts. After decades of declining membership, unions see the PRO Act...more
It was predictable – even inevitable – that the Biden administration would reverse much of Trump’s labor oeuvre. But no one could have predicted how quickly! In a little more than a month, the administration has:...more
On February 4, 2021, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (the “PRO Act”) was reintroduced by Democrats in the United States House of Representatives. If enacted, the PRO Act would dramatically transform American labor...more
Four years ago, the question was raised of whether the then-incoming Trump Administration would reverse course on Obama Administration positions assailing the independent contractor model. Shortly thereafter, the U.S....more
At the time we are posting this, we are just weeks away from the inauguration of President-Elect Joseph Biden. Although perhaps not at the very top of the list of questions about the forthcoming Biden administration,...more
Change is coming, but will it be a welcome change or a harbinger of woe? Over the last 8 years or so, the ever-changing landscape of employment laws has arguably posed an existential threat to franchising. The franchise...more
For generations of small business owners franchising serves as a successful business model. Under this paradigm a franchisor grants a franchisee a license to use the franchisor’s trademark and business concept in exchange for...more