On September 21, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued a stinging decision against commercial cleaning franchisor Jani-King, certifying a class action in an independent contractor (IC) misclassification case arising in the franchising context. Williams v. Jani-King of Philadelphia Inc., No. 15-2049 (3d Cir. Sept.…

This month’s news update includes four initiatives by the U.S. Department of Labor to combat IC misclassification. The first was the issuance of a new page on the DOL website called “Misclassification Mythbusters.” We critiqued the new DOL page in a blog post, pointing out that the DOL had…

On August 26, 2016, the National Labor Relations Board made public an Advice Memorandum from the NLRB’s Office of General Counsel regarding an unfair labor practice case arising in the context of independent contractor misclassification. The Advice Memo has already been reported in the trade as ruling that the misclassification…

The U.S. Department of Labor has just released a dozen Q&A’s on the issue of IC misclassification in an online publication it calls “Misclassification Mythbusters.”  The 12 IC misclassification “myths” that it seeks to debunk are intended to educate workers about their status as ICs and to foster …

Earlier today, Uber and its drivers were denied in their efforts to settle the IC misclassification lawsuits brought by Uber drivers in California and Massachusetts. As readers of this legal blog will recall from my post of April 22, 2016, Uber entered into a proposed settlement with counsel for the…

Four of the five independent contractor (IC) misclassification cases reported below from July 2016 illustrate how companies continue to fail to structure, document, and implement a business’s IC relationships in a manner that minimizes the likelihood of being targeted by class action lawyers and regulators. These four cases involve two…

Yesterday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed Executive Order No. 159 expanding the existing Joint Enforcement Task Force on Employee Misclassification into a Joint Enforcement Task Force on Worker Exploitation and Employee Misclassification. Those who follow IC misclassification developments in all 50 states, such as the publisher of this legal…

The poster children of IC misclassification cases dominated the news in June: Uber, Lyft, GrubHub, FedEx, an exotic dance club, and a trucking transport company. It was not a good month for any of them, yet as I have articulated in this legal blog on numerous occasions, every one of…

FedEx yesterday announced that it reached a settlement of its remaining independent contractor class action lawsuits in 20 states with its Ground Division drivers for $240 million, pending court approval. Coming on the heels of its $226 million dollar settlement in the California class action against it, FedEx will pay…

In the Courts (2 cases)

TELECOM SALES AND MARKETING AGENTS GAIN CERTIFICATION IN IC MISCLASSIFICATION CLASS ACTION. A New York federal district court grants conditional certification of a proposed FLSA nationwide collective action brought against Credico (USA) LLC and its subcontractors, which provide face-to-face sales and marketing services, by agents…