12.07.17
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New Year’s Resolution: 5 Tips to Limit Risks of an Independent Contractor Misclassification Claim

new years resolutions independent contractor misclassification 2018You know deep down you’re not really going to run a triathlon or learn Mandarin in 2018, so how about a New Year’s Resolution that’s more realistic? Here are 5 things businesses can do to limit their risks of an independent contractor misclassification finding:

  1. Review and edit contracts. Independent Contractor Agreements should be customized for the specific retention, highlighting actual facts that would be helpful in opposing a challenge to independent contractor status.
  2. Review and modify facts. Almost every independent contractor relationship can be strengthened by finding ways you can give up control or memorialize ways that you do not ever intent to exercise control. Does it really matter what times of the day your contractor works? If you set hours and don’t need to, change that fact. Then memorialize it in the contract.
  3. Use a Vendor Qualification Questionnaire. Qualify your contractors before retaining them. Make them represent to you that they are really in business for themselves, have other clients, are not economically dependent on getting work from you, etc. These representations can be useful if the contractor — or the government — ever challenges the contractor’s classification by claiming the relationship is really employment.
  4. Assign a gatekeeper. You may have contractors that you don’t even know about because managers in parts of the business have retained outside help rather than ask permission to hire new employees. Create a process that requires managers to obtain permission from a particular person before retaining any outside labor.
  5. Be proactive. Examine the facts and circumstances of your independent contractor relationships now. Know where you stand on the risk scale. Then assess how you can make changes to better protect your business against a claim of independent contractor misclassification. There are almost always steps that can be taken proactively to limit your risks. Be ready.

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12.04.17
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Can You Pay a Bonus to Your Independent Contractors?

“I want my money!” — Pearl, in The Landlord.

If you haven’t seen this Will Ferrell short video from 1997, take a look. Pretty funny.

Everyone wants their money. Method of payment is one of many factors used to evaluate whether an independent contractor is properly classified or instead is an employee.

Payment by the hour is permitted, but this method of payment more closely resembles employment. Payment by the project, regardless of time spent working, is most appropriate for an independent contractor relationship.

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11.27.17
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Are Santa’s Elves Employees or Independent Contractors?

elves independent contractors or employeesFor roughly 200 years, Santa has been retaining seasonal help at his Arctic Circle workshop. His undersized non-union workers toil in an icy land that sits beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. employment laws, a wise move by Mr. Claus and his attorneys.

While children around the world ask silly questions like, Can I visit the elves? and What do elves eat? and How do they work so fast?, this blog asks the serious question that all adult businesspeople want to know: Are elves employees or independent contractors?

Spoiler alert for the children: The answers are No, Caribou, and Amphetamines.

The adult question takes some analysis. Let’s peek behind the wintry curtain.

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11.20.17
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Using Independent Contractors Saved This Hospital an Arm and a Leg! (Really, Just a Leg)

leg broken independent contractor vs employee liabilityToday we attempt to answer a medical mystery: If I have to get my leg amputated because a doctor misdiagnosed me at the hospital, can I sue the hospital for malpractice?

Seems like an easy “yes,” right? Not so fast.

Suppose the doctor was an independent contractor, and suppose the hospital is a public institution. Those were the facts presented to the Supreme Court of Wyoming in a recent case (which also serves as a nice reminder that if you are admitted to the hospital with numbness and cramping in the legs and an “inability to walk,” it would be a good idea to get a vascular consult — assuming you want to keep your leg).

The Wyoming Supreme Court had to interpret a state statute that limited the liability of public hospitals to acts by its employees, except if a hospital extended its liability on purpose through an insurance policy. The hospital here had an insurance policy, but the policy did not reference coverage for acts by independent contractors.

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11.16.17
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Be Kind, Rewind: Here’s Why the Browning-Ferris Joint Employment Standard Is Going to Be Reversed

AF6DB19D-A636-4AB4-BFA8-7D592D57137FRemember when you used to go to the video store to rent VHS tapes and there was that little sticker on the tape cheerfully reminding you to “Be kind! Rewind!”  I know, half of you have no idea what I am talking about, but there used to be these things for watching movies before Netflix — no, not DVDs, before that — no, no, not cave drawings, after that.

Anyway, take my word for it. The point was, when you were done with your movie, you were supposed to rewind the tape so the next viewer could start over, back at the beginning of the film. It was the courteous thing to do.

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11.13.17
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Here’s a Tip a Cartoon Cat Would Love: Try This Edit to Your Independent Contractor Agreements

Independent contractor misclassification cat“Whenever he gets in a fix, he reaches into his bag of tricks!” Yes, boys and girls, I am talking about Felix the Cat, whose magical bag of tricks could be transformed to get him out of any treacherous situation. Don’t you wish you had one of those?

Well, I won’t share mine, but I can offer this tip, which may help you avoid a treacherous situation.

This weekend I was reading a California decision on independent contractor misclassification. (I do other, more fun things in my free time too, so don’t make fun. Ok, you should make fun a little.) While analyzing Right to Control factors, the court ruled that the worst fact for the business was that it could terminate the contractor at will. The ability to terminate a relationship at will, the court ruled, was the “ultimate” form of control! Really? I agree it’s a factor among many, but the “ultimate factor”? Come on.

Anyway, this problem is easily avoided with some creativity. Allow me to reach into my bag of tricks.

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11.09.17
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Are Prostitutes Employees or Independent Contractors?

D019E4C0-7B51-4597-BA1A-0C84C01105CF.jpegThere’s a headline I never expected to write. But apparently this is an issue in the Great State of Nevada.

I subscribe to a service that alerts me when new lawsuits are filed involving independent contractor misclassification disputes. This gem arrived in my inbox last week:

Sierra National Corp. dba The Love Ranch is suing the Nevada unemployment department. Apparently the State ruled that the Love Ranch’s lovely ladies were employees, not independent contractors. The Ranchers filed a lawsuit asking the State to open its files and show how it reached that conclusion. Here’s the description of the case:

Mandamus and public records. Petitioner, which operates a legal brothel, seeks to compel respondent to provide public records relating to respondent’s investigation and decision that the brothel’s prostitutes are employees, not independent contractors. Respondent agency’s blanket denial of the petitioner’s public-records request violates the state public records law. Continue reading →

11.06.17
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Don’t Wear Pajamas to Work: Be Careful Using “Statutory Minimum” Workers Comp Clauses in Subcontractor Agreements

Pajamas - Independent Contractor Agreements and Workers Compensation ClausesHave you ever had the dream where you show up at work or school in your pajamas or underwear? You’re exposed and embarrassed in the dream, and you can’t figure out why you forgot to put on regular clothes, right? (Please don’t tell me I’m the only one who’s had this dream. Please?)

You may be living this dream inadvertently in your vendor or subcontractor agreements. (And this is not what people mean when they say, “I’m living the dream!”)

Here’s the problem:

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11.02.17
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Time to Dance? Momentum Builds for Proposed New Joint Employment Law

Screen Shot 2017-10-28 at 11.47.09 AM

Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy is a low-quality youtube video that has somehow amassed more than a million hits. In the video, a lone (possibly intoxicated) festival goer starts dancing in a field. After a minute or so, momentum builds and others join him, showing off their terrible dance moves in a video you’ll wish you hadn’t wasted three minutes watching. (Just speaking from experience here.)

Several weeks ago, the House began considering a bill that would rewrite the definition of “joint employment” under federal wage and hour law (Fair Labor Standards Act) and federal labor law (National Labor Relations Act). The Save Local Business Act would require “direct” and “significant” control over “essential terms” of employment before a business could be considered a joint employer of a worker employed by another business (such as a staffing agency or a subcontractor). Read more here and here.

Originally sponsored by Rep. Bradley Byrne of Alabama (you might think of Rep. Byrne as the original dancer in the Leadership video, but dressed as a conservative Southern gentleman), the bill now has 112 co-sponsors, including a few Democrats. Dance party!

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10.30.17
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Court Rules That Shadowing Dad at Work Might Require Payment

Shadow - Trainee or Employee death-2577486_1280In the 1930s, the popular radio program The Shadow featured an invisible avenger who possessed “the mysterious power to cloud men’s minds, so they could not see him.” (He supposedly picked up this power in East Asia, which must have seemed mysterious in an era before Kung Pao Chicken was widely available.)

Eighty years later, “shadowing” has a different meaning. An unpaid trainee follows around a more experienced employee as a way to learn the business. Few trainees have mastered the power of invisibility [Note: only the best ones have, and they’re hard to find … ba-dum-bum], and often the nature of being a trainee involves getting in the way of the real work.

Scott Axel was a trainee who shadowed his father at an automobile wholesaler in Florida. He had no expectation of pay, and the business said it would not hire him. As a favor to his dad, the business let him learn the business by shadowing his dad.

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