From the Shrewsbury Lantern, a report that a landscaping company misclassified workers as independent contractors and failed to maintain accurate payroll records. The report states: A Westborough man and his landscaping company will pay more than $31,000 in restitution and penalties to resolve violations of the state’s wage and hour laws, Attorney General…
From The Boston Globe, David Casey criticizes the Massachusetts independent contractor statute because it stifles innovation and independence. He recommends returning to a previous version of the statute. David writes: Consider Jane, a Web-design freelancer who works from home in Waltham to produce branding solutions for clients across the country. She is proof that…
From Lexology, Richard A. Plewacki and J. Allen Jones discuss the recent First Circuit case in which the court said that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (“FAAAA”) preempted the second prong of Massachusetts’ ABC test, but that the remaining prongs must be met for a worker to qualify as an independent contractor. Richard…
From the Harvard Crimson, Nathaniel J. Hiatt reports that a massage therapist filed a lawsuit alleging that she was misclassified as an independent contractor and was improperly denied benefits. Nathaniel writes: Shannon E. Liss-Riordan ’90, the attorney for the case and a former Crimson editor, claims that the workers’ services are performed “in the employer’s usual…
Where have all the paperboys and papergirls gone? They’ve been replaced by delivery companies that newspapers contract with to deliver the newspapers. Recently, the Boston Globe Editorial Board published an editorial calling on an investigation into the classification of the newspaper delivery industry. The editorial states: Attorney General Maura Healey and federal labor authorities should take…
From Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, Kris Olson discusses some of the cases following the case in which the court said that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA) preempted the Massachusetts independent contractor statute because the FAAA “preempts state laws that ‘relate to’ the prices, routes, or services of a motor carrier ‘with respect to the transportation of…
From JDSupra, Patrick Bannon and Anne Bider of Seyfarth Shaw LLP discuss a recent Massachusetts case which found that an insurance agent who sold insurance was not performing services within the usual course of business of the insurance company. The Massachusetts independent contractor statute provides: Section 148B. (a) For the purpose of this chapter and chapter 151, an individual performing any…
From Boston.com, Justine Hofherr shares advice from Theresa Rilli, vice president at Atrium Staffing about classifying workers. She writes: 1. Who has the financial control? If the employer has the right to control the financial and business aspects of a worker’s job, for example by providing him or her with equipment or training to do a…
From the Boston Globe, the Editorial Board describes the problems with the regulation of the taxi business that made it susceptible to Uber and other ride sharing companies. Taxis, and the medallion system, protected cab drivers from competition until technology changed. The editorial states: “What has made the disruption caused by Uber and Lyft much more…
From JDSupra, Shannon Berube, David Casey, Christopher Kaczmarek and Stephen Melnick discuss a recent Massachusetts decision in which the court said that the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) preempted the Massachusetts independent contractor law. The case arose when the Massachusetts Delivery Association (MDA) challenged the applicability of the FAAAA, which prohibits states…