For those thinking that classifying workers as independent contractors is a cheaper way of doing business, beware. A California court just ordered a home healthcare business to pay $10 million in restitution and civil penalties for misclassifying its home care workers as independent contractors. The judgment in the case states that the company already was
Remember the 2021 Independent Contractor Rule? Well, forget it or at least most of it. Last week, the DOL published a new final rule for independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act (the New Rule). The New Rule rescinds the 2021 rule and provides guidance on how to analyze whether an individual should
Can you require your workers to arbitrate claims? What if they work in interstate commerce? Recently several courts have addressed the scope of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and when it applies to arbitration agreements included in employment contracts. Typically, courts have held that the FAA compels employees to pursue certain disputes before a private
On February 28, the White House issued a memorandum giving federal employees 30 days to remove the TikTok application from any government devices. This memo is the result of an act passed by Congress that requires the removal of TikTok from any federal information technology. The act responded to concerns that the Chinese government may
This year brought substantial progress in the way of slightly fewer positive COVID-19 cases and/or transmissions and increased vaccinations. Consequently, in the employment world many of you reopened your offices and invited employees, some thrilled and others reluctant, to return to in-person work. Though the return has restored some sense of normalcy, there are still
If you were just getting comfortable with the DOL’s final rule on employee versus independent contractor status (which took effect on March 8, 2021), there is bad news… or maybe good news. The DOL announced on October 11, 2022, the publication of a proposed rule that would rescind the earlier Trump administration rule and
There has been a lot of discussion over the last few years about the joint employer test for liability under employment statutes. Whether it be Uber drivers in California or the back and forth over the Trump administration’s change of DOL rules, it can be hard to follow. This week, the Second Circuit Court of
With Delta variant infections on the rise, the Biden administration recently announced that “every federal government employee and onsite contractor will be asked to attest to their vaccination status,” and that anyone who “does not attest to being fully vaccinated will be required to wear a mask on the job no matter their geographic location,
On January 7, we wrote about the DOL’s Final Rule on Independent Contractor Status that was slated to take effect on March 8, 2021. Many employer and business groups applauded the Final Rule because its focus on the economic reality test was intended to make it easier for employers to classify certain workers as independent
Employers often ask, “Can this worker be an independent contractor?” The answer is often unclear due to the different tests for employee versus independent contractor status, which vary between federal circuit courts and from state to state. In the end, the answer typically depends on how much risk the employer is willing to take. In