One of my first assignments as an attorney was to research IRS materials and opine on whether our firm's client, a document delivery service, could classify its couriers as independent contractors. If anyone else has done this type of research, you also have read the wondrous letter rulings on all kinds of workers, including chick sexers. And of course, a year or so later, we all got a crash course in whether nannies, babysitters, and housekeepers are independent contractors or employees, thanks to critics of Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood.
Law.com today reports that this month a California trial judge has ruled that FedEx can no longer categorize its drivers as independent contractors under California employment law. This ruling directly affects 14,000 FedEx drivers, but it could affect many, many more drivers in the package delivery and courier industries. The article did not report whether FedEx had categorized the drivers as independent contractors for federal income tax purposes or whether this ruling would have any affect on that categorization. The cost of that change would be quite large in terms of social security payments, withholding, etc.
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8345157d569e200d8345aad0b69e2
Links to weblogs that reference The Courier Wars: Employees or Independent Contractors?:
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
