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…

A prominent Washington State video game company, Valve Corporation, creator of Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Left 4 Dead, has been sued by a former employee it converted into an independent contractor as an accommodation to allow her to relocate to California to undergo transgender transition surgery. This case…

Earlier today, President Obama signed into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), which the Senate and House passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. While the impetus for the new law has been trade secret theft by foreign and domestic interests in the form of economic espionage, the DTSA applies to…

This past month involved the settlement of a number of high profile IC misclassification cases. In one case, a federal court gave conditional approval to a $226 million settlement between FedEx and its Ground Division drivers, whereby each of over 2,000 drivers would receive on average over $110,000 before deductions…

Only two weeks after a federal court judge in California rejected a proposed $12.25 million independent contractor misclassification settlement between Lyft and its drivers in California, Uber announced late yesterday, April 21, that it had reached a proposed settlement with its drivers in two IC misclassification lawsuits in California and…

A Regional Director for the NLRB issued an unfair labor practice complaint on April 18, 2016 alleging that a transportation company “has misclassified its employee-drivers as independent contractors, thereby inhibiting them from engaging in Section 7 activity and depriving them of the protections of the [National Labor Relations] Act.” While…