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
Most class action cases of independent contractor misclassification are brought against corporate entities. Yet many laws also permit plaintiffs to sue company executives or managers for personal liability in such cases. In...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
April 2021 was a meaningful month for two industries that are hardly strangers to lawsuits involving the status of workers as independent contractors. A federal district court in the District of Columbia issued an extremely...more
5/12/2021
/ ABC Test ,
Arbitration ,
Class Action ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Motor Carriers ,
Popular ,
Ridesharing
Tonight the President is expected to announce on the major networks and cable news services that he will sign into law tomorrow the next stimulus bill called the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which Congress passed...more
January 2021 may well be remembered in the independent contractor area of law as the “not so fast” month. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals told lower courts “not so fast” when it comes to certifying collective actions. ...more
On December 27, the President signed the next stimulus bill that Congress passed on December 21. The legislation extends unemployment assistance not only for employees but also for independent contractors and other...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
Many independent contractors complained of dire consequences after Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) became effective in California on January 1, 2020. Following intense lobbying and public relations campaigns, independent contractors in...more
The 883-page Coronavirus stimulus bill passed by the Senate and expected to be passed by the House and signed into law by the end of this week contains unemployment assistance provisions that expand coverage to individuals...more
There were several notable court and administrative cases over the past two months, but they were overshadowed by a legislative matter: the enactment of Assembly Bill 5 in California, which was the subject of our September...more
10/2/2019
/ Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Franchisors ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
NLRB ,
Popular ,
Ridesharing ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Payment and Collection Act
The latest version of Assembly Bill 5, which codifies the California Supreme Court’s Dynamex decision that was issued in April 2018, is about to become law. Dynamex created a so-called ABC test requiring companies to satisfy...more
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...more
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...more
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...more
6/11/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Independent Contractors ,
Insurance Agents ,
Misclassification ,
Popular ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour
In a very favorable ruling for insurance companies, a federal district court on May 6 held that Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company had not misclassified as an independent contractor (IC) a life insurance agent who...more
Yesterday, the first $100-million dollar settlement of an independent contractor misclassification case suddenly became a $20-million dollar deal, but on the same day a new nine-figure settlement took its place....more
3/13/2019
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Popular ,
Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour
One need only glance at the court cases we report on below to understand why some businesses choose to settle independent contractor misclassification cases. Three of these cases highlight the unpredictable approaches...more
3/12/2019
/ ADEA ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Class Action ,
DirectTV ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Franchisee ,
Franchises ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Popular ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
New York State and New York City started and ended 2018 and started 2019 by enacting ten worker protections that mandate additional requirements for New York employers. If you have not already done so, now is a good time to...more
2/13/2019
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Earned Sick Time ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Gender Expression ,
Governor Cuomo ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Lactation Accommodation ,
Paid Leave ,
Popular ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Safe Leave ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Sexual Orientation ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
For the past 18 months, insurance companies have been holding their collective breath to see if an appellate court would affirm or reverse an Ohio district court decision concluding that thousands of current and former agents...more
Independent contractor misclassification lawsuits swept across a swath of businesses last month, affecting companies in both the gig economy and traditional industries. Discussed below are class action and individual...more
10/11/2018
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Popular ,
Title VII ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour
When the California Supreme Court issued its groundbreaking decision in the Dynamex case on April 30, announcing a new test to be used in determining independent contractor status under certain California laws, it left open a...more
Yesterday, Uber Technologies, Inc. won a watershed case under federal and state wage laws on the issue of whether Uber drivers are independent contractors, as the company has steadfastly maintained. A federal district court...more
The California Supreme Court will hear oral argument tomorrow in a case that has the potential for altering the long-standing test in California for independent contractor status. The case is Dynamex Operations West v....more
This past month’s legal developments in the area of independent contractor misclassification and compliance was notable for some non-class action cases: one where two office workers in New York, who were found by a jury to...more