More than a year and a half ago, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in a class action independent contractor misclassification case, asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to articulate the test that judges should apply in state law wage and hour claims being heard in federal…

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 misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees. The maximum settlement amount, depending on the number…

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 latest federal-state partnership was announced earlier today by David Weil, the new Administrator of…

In the Courts (4 cases)

• 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 class action IC misclassification suit brought against Media Net, a supplier of

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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 a Silicon-valley start-up, Handy.com.  While the principal claims are similar (failure to pay for all hours worked…

In the Courts (8 cases)

• 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, and selling of cars misclassified as independent contractors instead of employees two of

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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 Ninth Circuit, which held that FedEx Ground had misclassified drivers who should have been classified as…

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 contractors as a matter of law. Those two decisions, which dealt with drivers in Kansas and Connecticut,…