The law of independent contractor misclassification in New York State is about to change for many companies in the business of transportation or delivery of commercial goods – but no one quite knows if it will be tomorrow or in another 30 or more days.

The new law targets transportation …

February 2014

In the Courts

• FIELD TECHS IN CALIFORNIA SUE HOME SECURITY FIRM AND TELECOM GIANT FOR IC MISCLASSIFICATION.  Class action complaint filed in California federal district court against Carter Brothers Security Services, LLC and AT&T by field technicians who installed home security systems and provided technical-related services. The technicians

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The President’s 2015 fiscal year budget was released earlier today, March 4.  The fifth of six “funding highlights” listed in the section of the Budget covering the Department of Labor is “Increasing support for agencies that protect workers’ wages and overtime pay, benefits, health and safety, and investing in preventing…

According to this year’s Annual Report of the New York State Task Force on Employee Misclassification, which was issued on February 1, 2014, the New York State Department of Labor completed in 2013 over 13,000 audits and investigations, in which nearly 127,000 workers were found to have been misclassified as…

January 2014

In the Courts

• NEWSPAPER THAT MISCLASSIFIED PAPER CARRIERS HIT WITH $11 MILLION JUDGMENT IN CALIFORNIA.  California state court orders San Diego Union Tribune, owned by Copley Press Inc., to pay $6.1 million in legal fees to the attorneys for a class of over 1,200 paper carriers who

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Earlier this week, the San Diego Union Tribune, owned by The Copley Press Inc., was ordered by a state court judge in California to pay $6.1 million in legal fees to the attorneys for a class of over 1,200 paper carriers to whom the court had earlier awarded…

On January 10, 2014, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the New York Commercial Goods Transportation Industry Fair Play Act  (S5867-2013; A5237b).  The new law targets transportation and delivery companies in New York that classify as independent contractors certain drivers that deliver commercial goods in the state. …

December 2013

This past month, a number of cases were decided by the courts involving misclassification of employees as independent contractors, but there were no regulatory or legislative actions of note.

In the Courts

• Massachusetts federal court grants summary judgment in favor of delivery drivers that were operating as corporations,

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