Many Illinois trucking companies have independent contractor agreements for owner-operators (to help establish an independent contractor relationship between the Illinois trucking company and the owner-operators who perform services as truck drivers for the trucking company). Illinois has an usual and precise legal definition of owner-operator of trucks as laid out in Section 212.1 of the…

ROLE OF STATE LEGISLATURE: Surprising to many, state legislatures solely determine the legal test that is used in a particular state for evaluating whether a “worker” in question is an independent contractor or an employee (for purposes of obtaining state unemployment insurance benefits). LEGAL BATTLE OVER CLASSIFICATION: For many years, I have defended companies who…

Over the years, I’ve had an increasing number of phone calls from company owners who have received in the mail a disturbing and unwelcome letter from an IRS SS-8 Unit, usually located in Holtsville, New York. The letter contains a cover letter and also an IRS Form SS-8 Questionnaire entitled “Determination of Worker Status for…

In September 2018, yet another lawsuit was filed against Uber, the ride-hailing company that has had several lawsuits filed against it, many about the classification issue of whether Uber drivers are employees or independent contractors. Uber has found some effective legal defenses in these lawsuits against it, so now a unique kind of lawsuit has…

Exotic dancers can be properly classified as either employees or independent contractors depending on how the working relationship is structured. But when the independent contractors believe they have been misclassified and should have really been employees, lawsuits may result. THRESHOLD LEGAL ISSUE: A Florida federal jury (under the U.S. District Court for the Southern District…

On September 22, 2017, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed new legislation (effective July 1, 2018) called the Illinois Employee Misclassification Referral System Act. This law requires the Illinois Department of Labor to create an online misclassification referral system on the DOL website. As such, the misclassification complaint may be automatically referred to the Illinois Department…

Creating a brave new world for taxi and limousine service companies, Uber and Lyft introduced their ride-hailing services approximately six years ago. Time has passed and now urban policy makers are shocked at how these very convenient and popular ride-hailing services have quickly changed transportation options in cities like New York City. To fix a…

The Answers to the Top Ten Employer Questions When a company uses independent contractors, it is not unusual for the Company to suddenly get a letter from the IRS that a current or former worker has submitted an IRS Form SS-8 (Determination of Worker Status for Purposes of Federal Employment Taxes and Income Tax Withholding).…

The purpose of this article is to update readers on what has been happening recently with Illinois Department of Employment Security (“IDES”) Hearings (and IDES audits) regarding the classification of owner-operator truck drivers (i.e., are they independent contractors or misclassified employees for purposes of Section 212.1?). SECTION 212.1: Many readers will know that the IDES…

There is a wide variation, state by state, as far as the treatment of the independent contractor versus employee classification issue. Laws regarding independent contractor status and unemployment insurance benefits, workers’ compensation coverage, overtime, etc. vary widely from state to state. Yes, there are also Federal laws which impact independent contractor status; but, increasingly, states…