August 2015 was not a vacation month for independent contractor cases. No less than seven major litigation events transpired this past month, highlighted by more of the same as well as some new developments. Several companies in different industries were subjected to judgments ranging as high as $5 million for…

Today Uber drivers were issued a favorable ruling by the federal district court judge hearing the independent contractor misclassification class action case brought by Uber drivers against the giant ride-sharing company in its own backyard in Northern California. But, there was little doubt as to how the court was likely…

Few independent contractor agreements we have reviewed, even those of Fortune 500 companies, are relatively free from clauses that undermine the IC relationship because such agreements typically contain clauses that retain the company’s right to direct or control the manner and means of performing services. As discussed in my blog…

On August 6, 2015, Uber drivers in California sought preliminary approval of their motion for class certification in their independent contractor misclassification lawsuit. A hearing was scheduled in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California before Judge Edward M. Chen on the drivers’ motion for class certification.…

Shortly after Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton placed independent contractor misclassification in the national spotlight in mid-July 2015 when she prominently commented in a campaign speech upon the expanding use of ICs in the “gig economy,” it has been reported that Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Al Franken (D-MN) have introduced…

This July was another month where independent contractor compliance and misclassification was a topic that made front page news. Hillary Clinton placed independent contractor misclassification in the national spotlight when she prominently mentioned the expanding use of ICs in the “gig economy” as an issue in the upcoming election campaign.…

Earlier today, Carmel DeAmicis of Re/code reported that Homejoy, the home cleaning start-up that uses independent contractors as their home cleaners, was closing down its operations due to four misclassification lawsuits filed against it.  This is not the first company in the sharing economy using on-demand contract workers to alter…

Earlier today, July 15, the Wage and Hour Administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor, Dr. David Weil, announced a new “Administrator’s Interpretation” addressing the misclassification of employees as independent contractors under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The 15-page Interpretation sets forth the test to be…

This article was published as a comprehensive three-part series in the Employment and Class Action sections of Law360 on July 7–9, 2015 as “The Costs of Worker Misclassification.” © Copyright 2015, Portfolio Media, Inc., publisher of Law360.  This article is based on the 2015 Update to my White Paper. …

Yesterday, as anticipated, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit adopted the decision of the Kansas Supreme Court that FedEx Ground drivers, as a matter of law, were employees and not independent contractors under the Kansas Wage Payment Act (KWPA). The Seventh Circuit had “certified” two questions to

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