Employers often find themselves with a sudden need for additional temporary coverage for one or more areas of their business. Maybe a mission-critical but discrete project awaits completion: you need the labor but only...more
Issues related to whether individuals are independent contractors or employees receive significant attention by employers and governmental entities because of the critical impact of misclassification. The U.S. Department of...more
On June 7, 2017, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta announced that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has withdrawn two informal guidance documents on independent contractor misclassification and joint employment, both issued...more
The New York State Court of Appeals and New York City recently provided additional guidance for – and imposed additional requirements on – New York employers that use independent contractors. In In re Yoga Vida NYC, Inc....more
The traditional working classification of independent contractor, as we have known it, may soon go the way of the dinosaur, the horseless carriage, and the telegraph. Although perhaps your gardener, pool man or family...more
How independent are musicians who play and perform with others? Do they have more artistic control on their own, or do they only become truly great artists in collaboration with others when their independent talents combine...more
In recent years, the “on-demand” economy, an industry built on apps that instantly connect customers with services performed by independent contractors, such as drivers and delivery workers, has thrived. However, regulatory...more
In a recent article, I warned all employers that government agencies are out to bust them for misclassifying their employees as independent contractors. The prior article discussed the efforts made by the United States...more
Worker classification issues are popping up in the news a lot again. This is because the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is taking a more aggressive view on joint-employer standards under the National Labor Relations...more
We previously wrote about the federal Department of Labor’s perspective on classifying employees and independent contractors here. However, many California employers are subject to the snare of multiple frameworks, all at the...more
The Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued new guidance addressing independent contractor classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). In Administrator’s Interpretation No. 2015-1, the DOL interprets the...more
Businesses operating in or expanding to the US, including those from Ireland and Northern Ireland, use independent contractors to avoid some of the baggage associated with the employer/employee relationship under US law. The...more
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) has fired a new salvo in its war on worker misclassification in the form of Administrator's Interpretation 2015-1, which challenges the widespread employer practice of declaring the...more
The U.S. Department of Labor has been busy of late. Fresh off of issuing a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing major changes to overtime exemptions (as summarized by HRLegalist), DOL Administrator David Weil has...more
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued an Administrator’s Interpretation that provides some important new guidance on the standard for classifying workers—as employees or independent contractors—under the Fair...more
Last week, the California Labor Commissioner ruled that Uber driver Barbara Berwick was an employee and not an independent contractor, as Uber classifies all its drivers. The ruling was based on the Labor Commissioner’s...more