Category Archives: Uncategorized

08.09.18
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Can Independent Contractors Sue for Employment Discrimination?

diaper independent contractor discrimination

The answer brings to mind the one must-have item for the thousands of crazies who spend 12 hours in Times Square waiting for the ball to drop every New Years’ Eve with no available public restrooms:

Depends.

Under federal anti-discrimination law, an individual generally needs to be an employee to bring an employment discrimination claim. Laws like the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act require employment status to file a lawsuit. Race discrimination claims, on the other hand, can potentially be brought under a different statute.

State laws, however, vary. Some states permit independent contractors to bring “employment discrimination” lawsuits; other states do not.

A recent decision by the Washington Supreme Court serves as a reminder that in the Great Northwest (home of Mount St. Helens and Blaine Peace Arch Park [which I visited  last month and got to run around and around the obselisk that marked the international border]), an independent contractor can bring a state law claim for discrimination “for the making or performance of a contract for personal services.”

The Pennsylvania Human Relations Act also prohibits discrimination against independent contractors.

On the flip side, state anti-discrimination laws in Ohio and Florida protect only employees, not independent contractors.

To determine whether independent contractors are protected under anti-discrimination laws, the answer truly is: It depends.  It depends on the type of alleged discrimination and depends on the state whether the alleged discrimination occurred.

None of this is to say that companies in states like Ohio or Florida should discriminate against contractors. In fact, where facts of any individual case are particularly egregious, common law claims might be recognized by courts uncomfortable with the idea that there is no remedy, even if the state’s anti-discrimination statute does not permit the claim. Although I live on the defense side, I still say: Do the right thing.

And if you should ever find yourself in Times Square on New Years’ Eve, passing the hours until the ball drops, I say this: Bring your adult undergarments. There’s no place to pee.

© 2018 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.

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08.06.18
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Is It Legal to Subcontract Out Union Work? (Ask a Song Title)

Subcontract union workI like similar but contradictory song titles. Pink Floyd has Wish You Were Here. But REO Speedwagon has Wish You Were There.

For one Puerto Rican company in the injection-molded products business, the message to its union was Wish You Were Gone (that’s Cosmo Pyke, 2017).  The company decided to outsource a portion of its injection mold production to a subcontractor but otherwise stayed in the business. The union filed an unfair labor practice charge.

The union won. The NLRB recently ruled that the company could not subcontract out work that had traditionally been performed by the union — at least not until the company had bargained over it and reached impasse. The Board ruled that once the union is performing a certain kind of work, a company’s decision to reconsider who performs this work is a mandatory subject of bargaining, so long as the company was remaining in the business. (The result likely would have been different if the company was getting out of that line of work.)

The Board noted that the company “remained an active participant in the production of injection-molded products, owned the machinery that manufactured the product, and continued to sell the product directly to the customers it served prior to its transfer of production to Alpla [the subcontractor].”

The moral of the story here is that — whether you wish the union were here, there, or gone — you need to bargain with it before subcontracting out its work. Exceptions may apply, depending on the facts and circumstances, but be cautious.

© 2018 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.

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08.02.18
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DOL: Association Health Plans Are Not Evidence of Joint Employment

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For some conditions, medical treatment will not help. For example, in 1979, Robert Palmer had “a bad case of lovin’ you” and no pill was gonna cure his ill. It is unknown whether this condition ever cleared up. At last report, Palmer had become addicted to love.

For those with conditions where pills can cure ills, or for those (like Huey Lewis?) who just want a new drug, medical coverage can be important. A new DOL rule allows small businesses to participate in Association Health Plans without exposing themselves to joint employer liability.

An Association Health Plan (AHP) is a group health plan that allows small employers to band together to purchase the types of coverage that are available to large employers, which can be less expensive and better tailored to the needs of their employees. AHPs can be formed based on common geography or based on a common industry or trade group.

The Department of Labor recently issued FAQs and a lengthy rule about AHPs, but for our purposes, one of the important pro-business features is that participation in an AHP cannot be used as evidence that the participant employers are joint employers under federal wage and hour law or employee benefits law.

The rule also recognizes that businesses may contract with individuals as independent contractors and that jointly participating in an AHP with these independent contractors does not make the business an employer or the contractor an employee.  The inclusion of independent contractors in an AHP is not evidence of misclassification.

The rule takes effect August 20, 2018.

© 2018 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.

To nominate WhoIsMyEmployee.com for 2018 best ABA Blawgs,
click here: http://www.abajournal.com/blawgs/web100/
Thank you for your support! (Nominations close on Aug 7)

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07.30.18
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Lessons from a Reggae Cucumber Song: Draft Benefit Plan Eligibility Language Carefully

ERISA independent contractor misclassification cucumber

Reggae artist Macka B has a song touting the nutritional benefits of the cucumber. The song includes verses like:

Get the cucumber cut it inna slice
Put it inna jug of water overnight
You know what you get for a fraction of the price
Energy drink full of electrolytes

I learned about this song when I asked The Google for songs about benefits. But as much as I like the song (youtube here), this post is about a different kind of benefits.

One of the biggest risks of independent contractor misclassification is having to provide employee benefits to workers you thought were independent contractors. If it turns out those workers were misclassified and are really employees, they may suddenly be eligible for all sorts of employee benefits, including retirement plans like 401(k) match and employee stock ownership. And they’ll be eligible retroactively. This can be expensive. A goof of this type cost one major corporation $97 million back in the late 1990s.

As one recent federal court decision from Georgia reminds us, businesses can avoid this risk with careful drafting in its benefit plan document.

Continue reading →

07.26.18
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Does California’s ABC Test Violate Federal Law? Truckers Sue, Saying It Does

Trucker Dynamex ABC Test California

The 1976 song, Convoy, is about a fictional trucker rebellion, protesting the 55 mph speed limit, tolls, and mandatory log books to ensure that drivers limit their hours. The song is full of trucker slang and includes CB conversations among Rubber Duck, Pig Pen, and Sodbuster. The truckers crash road blocks and flee the police and reinforcements from the Illinois National Guard. Here’s a fun little article about how this truckers’ protest anthem became a hit single.

The truckers are protesting again.

On July 19, the Western States Trucking Association filed a federal lawsuit, alleging that the California Supreme Court’s new ABC Test (set forth in the Dynamex case) for Continue reading →

07.23.18
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Court Expands Use of ABC Test in California, Commits Candy Land Party Foul

Dynamex ABC Test Candy Land

Suppose you are dominating an important game of Candy Land, having picked the orange card first, which gave you the privilege of taking Rainbow Trail across half the board to a distant purple square, leaving your toddler opponent in tears, whining, “No Fair!” Well, your toddler would be wrong since that was perfectly fair and within the rules. But you feel bad for young Timmy and so you allow him to change the rules mid-game so that no one can use Rainbow Trail, forcing you to plod slowly across all the regular squares, bored to tears because this stinking game takes forever.

Sometimes we make exceptions for bratty toddlers, but in real life it’s no fair to change the rules in the middle of the game. You may have built your entire Candy Land strategy around trying to pick the Orange square card first. It’s not fair to block you from Rainbow Trail after the game has started.

The same is true in business. Businesses hire employees or retain independent contractors according to the rules in place when they make those decisions.

An important ruling last week threatens to change the Independent Contractor vs. Employee rules midway through the game — but this is no game.

Continue reading →

07.16.18
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We’re Blogging about Logging! (I know, lame headline, but true)

Logger Ohio workers compensation independent contractor

The lyrics, “Come fly with me, come fly, come fly away” are instantly associated with Frank Sinatra (although, troublingly, the Michael Buble version appeared higher in my google search for a link to the lyrics). It is a little known fact* that the original version of the song was an ode to woodsmen and forestry workers and went something like this: “Come log with me, come log, come log away.”

In the original* lyric, Ol’ Blue Eyes invites a fellow logger to chop wood with him — not for him. That same distinction (with, not for) made all the difference in a recent court decision denying workers compensation benefits to a logger.

Continue reading →

07.09.18
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Free Smells! Jimmy John’s Avoids Franchisor Joint Liability

Joint employment jimmy john’s overtime litigation

The famous bank robber Willie Sutton supposedly once said that he robs banks “because that’s where the money is.” I doubt he said that since it seems rather incriminating. (“I’m sorry, your honor. What I meant is ‘If I did it…” See, Simpson, O.J.). But that’s the legend anyway. You can read more here on whether it’s true.

The strategy for plaintiffs in overtime cases is much the same. Sue the deepest pockets. That’s where the money is. When the deepest pocket is not your employer, allege joint employment.

That’s what happened in the recent overtime lawsuit against some Jimmy John’s franchise owners (the direct employers) and the franchisor (corporate Jimmy John’s). The lawsuit is cleverly titled In Re: Jimmy John’s Overtime Litigation. Like many lawsuits, the case has dragged on for four years. It has not been freaky fast.

Continue reading →

06.28.18
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How Best to Describe the Effect of Dynamex? Led Zeppelin Songs

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A lot has been written about the Dynamex case, but not enough has been written about it using references to Led Zeppelin songs. I am here to fill the void. Here is a musically-themed update. We’re Going to California. You’re welcome.

Dazed and Confused. Last week, a gaggle of California businesses and trade associations sent a letter to Gov. Brown and the Cal. Legislature, asking for relief from the Dynamex decision and its court-created ABC Test for independent contractor misclassification claims. The letter correctly says, “With one judicial opinion, nearly 30 years of established law has been overturned virtually overnight.”

Communication Breakdown. The letter argues that any change in the standard for determining Who Is My Employee? should be made by the legislature, not the courts. The Industrial Wage Commission, which wrote the wage orders at issue in the Dynamex case, was defunded 15 years ago, before mobile apps existed and before the gig economy took off. So why is a new rule applicable to the new economy coming from a court, instead of the legislature? Continue reading →

06.25.18
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What Do Rabbits, Swedish Massage, and this Misclassification Study Have in Common?

Independent contractor miscalssification study Georgia State UniversityAccording to the DailySignal.com, the National Institute of Health recently spent $387,000 to determine the health effects of Swedish massage on rabbits. I have not read the study, but I independently conclude that the massages were relaxing and helped to decrease some of the daily stresses faced by small burrowing mammals.

And that brings us to a study being conducted at Georgia State University, partially funded by a similarly wasteful $250,000 grant from the Department of Labor. It’s a study on independent contractor misclassification.

The study is examining 12,000 federal court decisions between 2008 and 2015 to try to determine “the ways in which federal district courts draw the line between employee and independent contractors.” Using text mining and big data tools, the study hopes to uncover “the legal tests that courts used [and] the factors that exerted the most influence on judges’ decisions.”

This is dumb.

Continue reading →