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I have blogged numerous times about the strictness of the New Jersey A-B-C test as applied to possible independent contractors.  The prime example of this is the very recent assessment of Uber for $650,000,000 in back-due unemployment contributions.  This incredibly large assessment, certain to be litigated about for years, is a sign to employers, large,…

The New Jersey test for independent contractor status under the unemployment laws is already very tough, the very infamous, A-B-C standard.  That is seemingly not enough for this Administration and Commissioner Asaro-Angelo.  The Senate Labor Committee has just passed Senate Bill 4204 which will revise the last two prongs of this tri-partite test, making it…

The New Jersey DOL is very aggressive on the issue of independent contractor status, i.e. the issue of misclassification.  The latest, perhaps best (or worst) illustration of this view is the agency’s determination that court reporters are employees for purposes of the Unemployment Law.  This errant decision, which cuts against traditional modes of thinking on…

When employers classify individuals as independent contractors, they are not obligated to provide them with certain benefits, as they would statutory employees.  Sometimes, if those individuals are found to not be independent contractors, those “failures” come back oftentimes to haunt the employers.  Another example of this phenomenon has happened in that a New Jersey appellate…

There is a tripartite test for independent contractor under the New Jersey Unemployment Compensation statute (and many other States), the so-called “ABC” test.  Under this test, services performed by an individual for remuneration shall be deemed to be employment unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the Department of Labor that: (a) Such individual…

I have done a lot of independent contractor work in New Jersey, defended many such cases, from (numerous) unemployment audits to FLSA class actions. The New Jersey test, the A-B-C test, is well-established and one of the hardest for the putative employer to prevail upon. The test was, just a few years ago, reinforced by…

I have handled almost 100 unemployment insurance audits by the New Jersey DOL, where the underlying gravamen is that certain individuals are or are not independent contractors. The Auditors enforce the law very strictly and follow, in my view, an almost mechanistic approach in their determinations that virtually every 1099 person they audit is an…

I have recently blogged about new exemption regulations being proposed.  Well, that is not the only regulatory initiative coming down the pike.  The USDOL is about to release guidance on the very confusing and thorny issue of when an individual is an independent contractor.  The agency will be issuing another of its “famous” white papers…