Archive for employee v. independent contractor

California Supreme Court Rules That Dynamex Applies Retroactively

California employers face even more liability now for misclassifying workers as “independent contractors.”  That’s because the California Supreme Court recently ruled in Vasquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising, Inc. that the test for determining whether a worker qualifies as an employee or independent contractor – known as the “ABC Test”…

Governor Newsom Signs AB 2257 Granting New and Expanded Exemptions to California’s Independent Contractor Law (AB 5)

As readers of this blog know, one year ago California’s Governor signed AB 5 into law, which mandated the “ABC Test” for determining whether a worker was an employee or an independent contractor.  The signing of AB 5 into law was a watershed moment for California businesses and…

Independent Contractors Remain Dangerous for California Employers

As we blogged about last year here, in May 2018 the California Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court and dramatically changed the standard for determining whether California workers could be classified as employees or independent contractors.  One key question that the Dynamex…

CA Supreme Court Delivers Bombshell Ruling — Even Harder Now for Employers to Classify Workers as Independent Contractors

Determining whether a worker should be classified as an employee or independent contractor has always been a challenging task that frustrates our clients.  There are a variety of legal “tests” that are used in different contexts in order to make that determination.  A worker can be considered an…

Startups Prefer Employees Over Independent Contractors?

We’ve all heard the stories about how startups tend to prefer to classify their workers as “independent contractors” rather than “employees.”  Uber is a current and classic example of this legally risky phenomenon. But, according to today’s Business Insider, startups are apparently now second-guessing this strategy.  There’s a budding…

Governor Brown Signs AB 202 Making Cheerleaders Employees

On July 15, 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 202.  This new law requires California-based minor or major league baseball, basketball, football, ice hockey, or soccer to treat cheerleaders as employees, not independent contractors, when they perform during exhibitions or games.   This means that California cheerleaders are…

Delivery Drivers are Employees, Not Independent Contractors

In yet another example of the challenges and difficulties involved in using independent contractors, today the Ninth Circuit ruled in Ruiz v. Affinity Logistics that delivery drivers for Affinity are employees rather than independent contractors. In reaching this decision, the Ninth Circuit reversed the lower court’s ruling which concluded…