Here we are again, with the Burning Question: Are Uber and Lyft drivers employees or independent contractors? That depends on who you ask. A state court in California has ruled that they are employees and has issued a temporary injunction ordering Uber to re-classify its drivers as such. Uber received a 10-day stay and plans […]
The “ABC’s” of Independent Contractor Designations
The US Department of Labor recently issued an opinion letter stating that workers finding work through a gig-economy platform are independent contractors, rather than employees. Earlier this week, I posted about that on LinkedIn. The DOL’s opinion letter is not law. It does provide excellent guidance on how the federal agency enforcing the Fair Labor […]
Your “Independent Contractors” Are Probably Employees — and That’s a BIG Problem…
I know, I’ve written before about mis-classifiying workers as independent contractors, when legally they are really employees. I wrote in more detail about that here. So why am I back on that topic? For one thing, it’s not going away, and it’s not likely to any time soon. The IRS, the USDOL and their State […]
Allegations of Sexual Assault By Uber Drivers Provide Key Lessons For Employers
Uber is facing another lawsuit. That may not sound like news at this point. This time it involves allegations of drivers sexually assaulting passengers. This is not the first time someone has leveled such allegations against an Uber driver, just one of the more recent. This lawsuit is in San Francisco. Other similar allegations involve […]
Is Uber Driving its Own Workers Away?
You may have seen my series of posts on Wal-Mart back in 2014. You can click here, here and here for some of them. I spent as much time as I did with Wal-Mart because, well, they have had so much to teach employers, particularly what not to do. Wal-Mart is not the only such […]