This past month was relatively uneventful in the area of independent contractor misclassification and compliance news, if one regards a $16.5 million settlement as unremarkable. But the amount of the settlements in IC misclassification cases appears to be increasing substantially.  This $16.5 million settlement involves a very large logistics company…

The publisher of this legal blog and Matthew Kane, the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Z Capital Group, LLC, wrote an article as guest authors for Private Equity Law Report entitled “How to Evaluate Portfolio Companies for Independent Contractor Misclassification Liability.”  The article, published on June 18, 2019,…

The past two months were two of the busiest ever in terms of judicial decisions involving claims of independent contractor misclassification, administrative and regulatory initiatives, and legislative developments.  They are combined in this blog post.

Two of the most impactful cases involved Amazon and Jan-Pro, a nationwide commercial cleaning franchisor.…

Following on the heels of a very favorable decision by a federal appellate court earlier this year that insurance agents for American Family Insurance were not misclassified by the company as independent contractors in a class action brought under ERISA, a federal district court in New Jersey earlier this week…

Ride-sharing giant Uber Technologies announced by way of a filing today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it has reached agreements to resolve the independent contractor (IC) classification claims of a large majority of the 60,000 drivers in the U.S. who have filed arbitration demands or indicated an…

Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Labor issued an Opinion Letter on the issue of independent contractor status of an on-demand virtual marketplace company (VMC) that refers end-market consumers to service providers who offer delivery, transportation, shopping, moving, cleaning, plumbing, painting, and household services. The Labor Department examined six factors…

Cases reported below for this past month show that large companies remain in the crosshairs of class action lawyers representing workers in independent contractor misclassification lawsuits. Two well-known industry leaders in the retail and insurance industries were sued in Texas and Illinois. The claim against the retailer alleges that it…

Companies that operate their businesses on an independent contractor model or supplement their workforce with ICs are likely to be asking, “Does the proposed new joint employer regulation issued by the U.S. Department of Labor have any impact on independent contractors?”  The answer is yes.

While the Labor Department’s proposed…