independent contractor

Subscribe to independent contractor

Service providers vendors (and those vendors’ employees) are free to assert claims that they  “employees” of the entity for which they are providing services under the FLSA under independent contractor misclassification and joint employer theories.  Service providers continue to do so despite limited success, the most recent example being Judge Andrew Carter’s (SDNY) summary…

Virginia employers may see more robust worker misclassification enforcement and enhanced cooperation between state agencies with respect to misclassification issues in the near future.  Following the lead of the federal government and other states, Governor Terry McAuliffe’s recent Executive Order, signed on August 14, 2014, calls for the establishment of an interagency task force…

Following the Second Circuit’s clarification that an FLSA plaintiff must provide “sufficiently developed factual allegations” regarding hours worked (DeJesus v. HF Mgmt. Servs., LLC, 726 F.3d 85, 89-90 (2d Cir. 2013)), District Courts both within and outside the Circuit have sought to apply that standard to Fair Labor Standards Act complaints.  In one…

On the heels of similar legislation passed in 2010 for the construction industry, and consistent with the state’s continuing focus on alleged misclassification of service providers as independent contractors, the New York state legislature recently passed the Transportation Industry Fair Play Act, N.Y. Labor Law § 862 et seq.  This legislation creates a…

Reviewing a working arrangement common in the financial services industry, particularly with respect to experienced professionals, Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the Southern District of New York recently upheld the Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) treatment of a “consultant” as an independent contractor under the federal and state wage/hour and anti-discrimination laws.  Sellers v. …

Newly appointed Labor Secretary Thomas Perez addressed the 2013 AFL-CIO Convention earlier this week, providing details on the Obama Administration’s legislative and administrative wage-hour agenda for the remainder of the President’s second term. The wage-hour agenda likely will be overseen by the President’s new nominee for Wage and Hour Administrator, Dr. David Weil, a professor…

In two decisions issued this spring, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, reversed decisions issued by Massachusetts lower courts and broadly interpreted the scope of Massachusetts wage law with respect to its extra-territorial reach and potential individual liability for violations. Taylor v. Eastern Connection Operating, Inc., 465 Mass. 191 (Mass. 2013); Cook v. Patient …

After an at times testy and contentious confirmation proceeding, on July 18 the United States Senate confirmed President Obama’s nomination of Thomas Perez as the new Secretary of Labor, replacing the departed Hilda Solis. Some Republican Congressmen had questioned Perez’s conduct in a qui tam action in Minnesota.  Mr. Perez’s Senate confirmation vote was…

In a lengthy analysis of the “economic realities” test as applied to cable installers, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich of the Middle District of Florida’s 2012 decision finding cable installers to be properly classified as independent contractors.  Scantland, et al. v. Jeffry Knight, Inc., et al.…

Even as the New Jersey legislature contemplates amendments to the law (similar to those enacted in New York) limiting the classification of certain truck drivers as independent contractors, a New Jersey federal judge has granted an industry employer’s motion to dismiss claims that its drivers were misclassified as independent contractors.  Luxama v. Ironbound Express, …