Is My New Hire an Employee or a Contractor? Key Factors for Startups to Consider
Unpaid Internships: Are They Legal?
Election results and the Affordable Care Act – What can employers do now?
Oregon employers that require arbitration for employment-related disputes recently received some good news from the Oregon Supreme Court. In Gist v. ZoAn Management, Inc., the Court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that his...more
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans were designed to help small businesses cover explicit allowable expenses during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are various eligibility requirements that businesses must satisfy before...more
Businesses and nonprofit organizations that experienced interruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic may be eligible for relief funds through the North Carolina Department of Commerce and the Economic Investment Committee’s Job...more
Last month, the U.S. Treasury and the Small Business Administration (SBA) released two Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan forgiveness applications. The first was a new EZ PPP loan forgiveness application with instructions...more
Is My New Hire an Employee or a Contractor? Key Factors for Startups to Consider Employee or contractor? It can be a confusing question that startups often grapple with, or ignore, as they grow. In this video, Fenwick...more
The parties in the Grubhub misclassification case are back in court on Monday, October 30, delivering their final closing arguments to the judge. We’ve written about the trial extensively. To sum it up, though: a former...more
With the rise of the gig economy, IT companies are taking the approach many employers in the gig economy have taken in structuring their workforce. In an industry where full-time and part-time employees cohabit in the same...more
On May 30, 2017, the Ontario government issued its response to a Final Report recently released by two Special Advisors as part of their Changing Workplaces Review. This Report included 173 recommendations for amendments to...more
The City of Pittsburgh recently became the second city in Pennsylvania to enact a paid sick leave law, with Mayor William Peduto signing the Paid Sick Days Act into law on August 13, 2015. While the Act is facing legal...more
The Economic Policy Institute, a respected nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, has just released a working paper authored by a respected professor who co-authored a number of early academic studies detailing independent...more
A comprehensive government report on the contingent workforce made public two days ago revealed surprising data about independent contractors, finding that 85% of independent contractors “appeared content with their...more
Since its enactment in 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has generated debate and questions about the law's impact on third-party staffing arrangements. With the effective date of the ACA's "pay-or-play" employer mandate...more
In the 1920s, author Gertrude Stein famously said, “A rose is a rose is a rose.” In light of Alexander v. FedEx Ground, that phrase could just as well be: an employee is an employee is an employee. Alexander is one of many...more
I’ll bet you assume that the hard-working driver who delivers your packages and letters shipped by Federal Express is a FedEx employee. After all, he or she wears a FedEx uniform, drives a FedEx truck, uses a FedEx handheld...more
Last week, the 9th Circuit held in two related cases from California and Oregon that FedEx misclassified approximately 2,600 delivery truck drivers as independent contractors, rather than as employees. The cases—Alexander v....more
January 1, 2015 is fast approaching, and with it, the first year the employer mandate applies to employers with 100 or more full-time employees (50 in 2016) – the “Play or Pay” rules. In preparation for this new law,...more
As we enter 2014, employers should take the opportunity to review their classifications of employees and independent contractors to ensure they do not run afoul of the many overlapping statutes and regulations in this area....more
On November 18, 2013, New York State announced that it is teaming with the U.S. Department of Labor (U.S. DOL) to protect employees against misclassification as independent contractors or other nonemployee statuses. Officials...more
In this series of blog posts, we have examined the use of independent-contractor relationships by multinational organizations. In our last three posts, we identified issues for global entities that are considering using...more
The new head of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) will emphasize independent contractor misclassification as a top priority. Speaking this morning at a panel discussion in Chicago hosted by the American Bar...more
In a purported class action, Jessica Mason et al. v. Fantasy LLC et al., five adult dancers have sued the Fantasy Gentlemen’s Club in Colorado federal court for misclassifying them as independent contractors, alleging they...more
A recent Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision issued a strong admonition to employers: the misclassification of workers as independent contractors rather than employees may have serious financial and operational...more
Trucking companies that operate in California and also utilize independent contractor “owner-operators” to ship goods throughout the country must re-evaluate whether or not the contractors are misclassified in light of the...more
Are your landmen independent contractors? Are they employees? What do they look like to the government?...more
Happy Nails & Spa of Fashion Valley, LP, v. Julie Su, No. D060621 (July 19, 2013): A California Court of Appeal recently held that an employer does not have to relitigate the issue of whether the workers at its facilities are...more