Governor Pat Quinn (Dem.) of Illinois signed two new laws today, July 23, 2013, intended to curtail misclassification of employees as independent contractors (ICs). Both laws amend the state’s Employee Classification Act which, although its title suggests the law applies industry-wide to all employees in Illinois, is limited to…

On July 3, FedEx Ground drivers won summary judgment in their misclassification lawsuit brought against the global courier company under the Massachusetts Independent Contractor Act.  No. 11-11094 (D. Mass. 7/3/13).  Judge Richard G. Stearns of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts rejected all of FedEx Ground’s defenses,…

June 2013

In the Courts 

  • Texas federal district court denies summary judgment motion of American subsidiary of Chinese oil rig company where two welders claim they were misclassified as independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Applying the economic realities test, the court found that material issues of fact

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On May 30, reporter Carlyn Kolker of ThomsonReuters interviewed the publisher of this legal blog, Richard Reibstein, about blogging on the topic of independent contractor (IC) compliance and misclassification, and the cutting-edge issue of complying with different state and federal laws governing ICs.

The full Q&A published by ThomsonReuters is…

May 2013

In the Courts 

  • New York federal district court grants approval of $600,000 settlement in favor of a class of luxury suite attendants who worked at Arthur Ashe Stadium during the U.S. Open between 2004 and 2009.  The defendants were three companies that provided catering and concession services at

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Businesses that treat workers in a single tax year as both a W-2 employee and a 1099 independent contractor (IC) typically raise red flags at the IRS and state workforce agencies. Only in rare cases do agencies or the courts countenance a worker being classified simultaneously as both an employee…

The Chief of the IRS’s Employment Tax Policy section, John Tuzynski, told lawyers on May 10, 2013 at an American Bar Association’s meeting of tax lawyers in Washington, D.C. that the IRS will soon be pursuing more cases involving independent contractor (IC) misclassification through its Questionable Employment Tax Practices (QETP)…

The U.S. Department of Labor has targeted a number of industries for allegedly misclassifying employees as independent contractors (ICs), and cable companies are one of them.  On May 9, 2013, the Labor Department announced in a press release that Bowlin Group LLC, which provides installation services for Insight Communications,…

April 2013

In the Courts

  • New York federal district court grants plaintiffs’ motion for class certification in lawsuit  alleging that the United States Tennis Association (USTA) misclassified U.S Open umpires as independent contractors and failed to compensate them with overtime pay in violation of the New York Labor Law and

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My two prior blog posts have focused on the rising costs of misclassification liability for trucking, delivery, and transportation companies and the industry’s efforts to avoid such costs when confronted by state laws governing the status of independent contractors (ICs).  One of the ways in which such companies have been…