Last month, two key legal developments in the area of independent contractor misclassification and compliance highlighted the risks posed to customer service companies that use an independent contractor business model. The...more
Two court cases we summarize below, decided in March 2024, demonstrate that while some companies may prevail in an IC misclassification lawsuit, others do not. Why? As a starting point, the legal test for IC status under the...more
As discussed in our QuickStudy of January 9, the U.S. Department of Labor has issued its long-awaited final rule setting forth its version of the test for independent contractor status under the federal Fair Labor Standards...more
It has been well over a year since the U.S. Department of Labor issued its proposed rule entitled “Employee or Independent Contractor Classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act.” The regulation was expressly intended...more
1/9/2024
/ Administrative Interpretation ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Final Rules ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Wage and Hour
It’s been almost a full year since the U.S. Department of Labor issued its proposed regulation entitled “Employee or Independent Contractor Classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act.” The proposed regulation was fully...more
Case developments last month involved independent contractor misclassification lawsuits in the Southwest, Southeast, and Mid-Atlantic states. While more IC misclassification lawsuits have been brought in California than any...more
In response to the U.S. Department of Labor’s proposed regulation released to the public on October 11, 2022 entitled “Employee or Independent Contractor Classification under the Fair Labor Standards Act,” an unprecedented...more
Among the legal developments we report on below from October is a decision by a federal district court in California certifying a lawsuit for independent contractor misclassification as a collective action under the federal...more
The Biden Administration’s Labor Department earlier today issued a proposed regulation that seeks to define the worker classification test for independent contractor or employee status under the Fair Labor Standards Act...more
The U.S. Labor Department has been playing musical chairs in its approach to classifying workers as independent contractors or employees under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act since the middle of the Obama Administration....more
Federal and local officials in Washington, D.C. took steps last month to gear up their counter-attacks against independent contractor misclassification, but companies that have taken meaningful steps to enhance their...more
In the same month that 7-Eleven prevailed in a federal court trial where convenience store franchisees claimed they were not independent contractors but rather employees entitled to the protections of state labor laws, a...more
Direct sellers and door-to-door salespersons are frequently classified as independent contractors – and that classification is increasingly under attack, both by class action lawyers and the U.S. Department of Labor, as...more
Today President Biden announced that he is nominating Dr. David Weil as his Wage and Hour Administrator, the same person who served in that capacity during the Obama presidency. During the Trump Administration, Dr. Weil...more
The U.S. Department of Labor today issued a rule yesterday that withdraws the Trump Administration’s regulation setting forth a test to classify workers as independent contractors or employees under the federal Fair Labor...more
Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Labor formally issued a rule that withdraws the Trump Administration’s regulation addressing the test for classifying workers as independent contractors or employees under the federal...more
Today, one day before the end of President Trump’s Administration, the U.S. Department of Labor issued an opinion letter that certain owner-operator drivers that provide services to a transportation and logistics company are...more
Today, one day before the end of the Trump Administration, the Labor Department issued a series of opinion letters, one of which concluded that certain distributors who resell to retail outlets food products they purchase...more
On the day the U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed regulation regarding the classification status of independent contractors, we reported here that the regulation, once finalized, would be “much ado about (almost)...more
President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign issued a comprehensive labor plan that seems to focus on empowering unions. But while the title of this campaign platform is “The Biden Plan for Strengthening Worker Organizing, Collective...more
In response to the U.S. Department of Labor’s proposed regulation on independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act, over 1,500 individuals and organizations have already filed comments prior to the deadline...more
Last month presented a clash between the enactment of a new version of the most restrictive state law test in the nation for independent contractor status and the issuance of a proposed federal regulation that would create...more
10/9/2020
/ ABC Test ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Preemption ,
Wage and Hour
Yesterday, the U.S. Labor Department issued a proposed regulation addressing the classification criteria of workers as independent contractors or employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Unlike regulations with...more
While selected states are in the midst of trying to crack down on independent contractor misclassification, the federal government is trying to clear a path and clarify the tests for independent contractor status under...more
2/18/2020
/ ABC Test ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Wage and Hour
Many companies that operate their businesses on an independent contractor model or supplement their workforce with ICs may be wondering if they will be impacted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s final rule on joint employer...more