The home health care industry has been targeted in the past for independent contractor misclassification by the U.S. Department of Labor and state workforce agencies, particularly with respect to home health aides.  Earlier today, July 13, 2018, the U.S. Department of Labor issued guidance that, on its face, seems to…

This past month was not a particularly newsworthy month in the area of independent contractor misclassification and compliance, but four court cases and a government study do provide insights for businesses that rely on ICs.

In the first case reported below, a group of newspapers thought they had won their…

The past two months were momentous for many companies that engage independent contractors in California to supplement their workforce or to interact with their customers. This applies not only to businesses based in California but also to those based in other states with ICs across the U.S., including in the…

When the California Supreme Court issued its groundbreaking decision in the Dynamex case on April 30, announcing a new test to be used in determining independent contractor status under certain California laws, it left open a host of questions that are likely to vex lawyers, businesses and workers. It may

…

This post was published in an abbreviated form on the E&P website (May 2, 2018), which can be found by clicking here. Those portions are reprinted here with permission from E&P Copyright 2018 (800.372.1033).

A cottage industry for plaintiffs’ class action lawyers has been independent contractor (IC) misclassification lawsuits,…

Earlier today, the California Supreme Court established the Golden State as one of the least hospitable jurisdictions in the nation toward independent contractor status. Abandoning its decades-old common law test used to determine IC status, the California Supreme Court in Dynamex Operations West v. Superior Court (No. S222732), created a…

This blog post has been superseded by the post on April 30 entitled “Independent Contractor Bombshell for California Businesses” 

Tomorrow, April 30, 2018, the California Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in a case that could change the legal test as to whether an individual is…

Yesterday, Uber Technologies, Inc. won a watershed case under federal and state wage laws on the issue of whether Uber drivers are independent contractors, as the company has steadfastly maintained. A federal district court in Pennsylvania granted summary judgment in favor of Uber concluding that UberBLACK limousine drivers, as a…

Independent insurance sales agents have been treated as independent contractors for decades. But recently, class action lawyers have begun to target insurance companies with claims that insurers have misclassified these sales agents as ICs instead of employees. These lawsuits allege that insurance companies have violated wage and hour, employee benefit,…

Last month, half of the cases that came to our attention in the area of independent contractor misclassification and compliance involved interesting issues concerning arbitration – and lessons for companies seeking to limit class action lawsuits by those they classify as ICs.

The first case involved an IC agreement that…