Last week the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a decision that may have far reaching impact on how "joint employment" is interpreted in workers' compensation cases. Under the doctrine of "joint employment" an employee may be considered an employee of two employers and the ultimate responsibility maybe passed to franchisor under both, The Right to Control or The Nature of the Work, tests.
Showing posts with label Employment Status. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Employment Status. Show all posts
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
NLRB Rejects Northwestern University Football Payers' Bid to Unionize
Ryan Field, Northwestern's 49,000 seat football stadium.
The NLRB has rejected a bid by the football players at Northwestern University to unionize. The decision, ironically, did not decide whether or not the football scholarship players were employees.
Thursday, July 30, 2015
The Plot Thickens As Uber Turns to Leasing Vehicles
Uber is about to change "the rules" yet again by now leasing vehicles to its drivers. While there is great uncertainty of how "employment status" will be interpreted going forward in the new sharing economy, one thing is for certain, the concept will continue to evolve and redefine the traditional workplace.
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Misclassification: US Dept of Labor Issues Interpretation of Employment Status
The Application of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s “Suffer or Permit” Standard in the Identification of Employees Who Are Misclassified as Independent Contractors.
Sounding very much like a workers' compensation standardized employment status test, the US Department of Labor has added its interpretation this developing area of the law. This memo will has obvious added consequences to state interpretation to this issue.
Sounding very much like a workers' compensation standardized employment status test, the US Department of Labor has added its interpretation this developing area of the law. This memo will has obvious added consequences to state interpretation to this issue.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
NJ Supreme Court: Superior Court has jurisdiction to determine employment status
The NJ Supreme Court ruled that the NJ Division of Workers' Compensation does not have exclusive jurisdiction in determining employment status. In reversing the decision of the Appellate Decision, the NJ Supreme Court held that when a claim petition is not filed with the NJ Division of Workers' Compensation, the Superior Court has exclusive jurisdiction over who is an employee versus independent contractor.
"We conclude that when, as here, there is a genuine dispute regarding the worker's employment status, and the plaintiff elects to file a complaint only in the Law Division of the Superior Court, the Superior Court has concurrent jurisdiction to resolve the dispute."
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
On-Call Employment: Uber on Steriods
The NY Attorney General took action yesterday to rein in the growing emergence of "on-call staffing." The new dynamic of on demand staffing continues to be a growing trend in the employment arena. It is sort of an Uber on steroids.
The historic legal concepts that determine compensability in workers compensation cases have traditionally been defined by the concept of "arising out of and in the course of employment." Those parameters are indeed going to be challenged by the concept of "on-call employment."
The historic legal concepts that determine compensability in workers compensation cases have traditionally been defined by the concept of "arising out of and in the course of employment." Those parameters are indeed going to be challenged by the concept of "on-call employment."
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Will Workers' Compensation Adapt to "On Demand" Employment
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| Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google Inc. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
| The changing nature of employment status may have a profound effect on how workers' compensation exists, if at all, in the coming years. Today's post is shared from recode.net What happens as machines and artificial intelligence push humans out of the workforce? It’s one of the more important problems of our time — theoretical as it may seem in some sectors today — as technology makes industry after industry more efficient. One of the most important tech overlords, Google CEO Larry Page, thinks most people want to work, but they’d be happy working less. Page’s take: We have enough resources to provide for humanity. “The idea that everyone needs to work frantically to meet people’s needs is just not true,” Page said, in an interview at a private event put on by the venture capital firm Khosla Ventures that was just released online. In fact, today humanity does dumb things like destroy the environment, in part because people work when they don’t have to, Page contended. The answer isn’t to just cut jobs en masse, Page said. People want to feel “needed, wanted and have something productive to do.” But most everyone would like a little more time off. So perhaps one solution would be to split up part-time work between people, as Page said Richard Branson is experimenting with in the UK. Page’s co-founder Sergey Brin had a slightly different take. “I do think that a lot of the things that people do have been, over the past century, replaced by machines and will continue to be,” Brin said. But after Page opined about his idea of “slightly less... |
Tuesday, July 1, 2014
US Supreme Court Defines Employment Status
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| English: United States Supreme Court building in Washington D.C., USA. Front facade. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
In a split decision the Justices held that, a personal assistant hired under Pennsylvania Medicare, was not considered to be a public employee subject to mandatory union dues deductions like others state employees. The Court reasoned that the personal assistants were subject to the control of the private patients since the patients maintained control b b hiring, firing, training and supervising of the employee.
Harris v Quinn, No. 11-681 (Sp. Ct. 2014), decided June 30, 2014.
Lyle Denniston Reporter for scotus.com reports: "What the Court did do specifically was to draw a legal distinction for now between state and local employees that it will consider to be “full-fledged” public workers and workers who will be treated as something less than that — “partial public employees,” such as the workers in this case — for purposes of union organization. The workers in this case are home health care workers who look after a patient or two in the privacy of a household."
Saturday, January 26, 2013
The Vanishing Concept of a Job
While reviewing some historical cases today, I realized that what is missing from the workplace is the concept of "a job." America's economy has dramatically changed, and so have jobs that were once available in the workforce.
Even clearer is the fact that the concept of a job has disappeared. The idea of getting up in the morning and going regularly to a job has even vanished. The evolution changed slowly with the younger generation claiming that a job cycle transformed from a lifetime position to one lasting two years. Then the next stage in the evolution occurred, where the employee became a transient worker, and daily the job changed, No stable employer really exists.
This evolution has eroded the underlining framework of a functional workers' compensation program and the delivery of benefits. The injured worker becomes lost to the system, and a safe and secure workplace has become an illusion. Lost in the complexity is the adequate reporting of accidents and occupational disease, and the ability to accurately follow the evolution of latent diseases and medical conditions.
Even clearer is the fact that the concept of a job has disappeared. The idea of getting up in the morning and going regularly to a job has even vanished. The evolution changed slowly with the younger generation claiming that a job cycle transformed from a lifetime position to one lasting two years. Then the next stage in the evolution occurred, where the employee became a transient worker, and daily the job changed, No stable employer really exists.
This evolution has eroded the underlining framework of a functional workers' compensation program and the delivery of benefits. The injured worker becomes lost to the system, and a safe and secure workplace has become an illusion. Lost in the complexity is the adequate reporting of accidents and occupational disease, and the ability to accurately follow the evolution of latent diseases and medical conditions.
"A new trend in the U.S. labor market is reshaping how management and workers think about employment, while at the same time reshaping the field of occupational safety and health. More and more workers are being employed through “contingent work” relationships. Day laborers hired on a street corner for construction or farming work, warehouse laborers hired through staffing agencies, and hotel housekeepers supplied by temp firms are common examples, because their employment is contingent upon shortterm fluctuations in demand for workers. Their shared experience is one of little job security, low wages, minimal opportunities for advancement, and, all too often, hazardous working conditions. When hazards lead to work-related injuries, the contingent nature of the employment relationship can exacerbate the negative consequences for the injured worker and society. The worker might quickly find herself out of a job and, depending on the severity of the injury, the prospects of new employment might be slim. Employerbased health insurance is a rarity for contingent workers, so the costs of treating injuries are typically shifted to the worker or the public at large. Because employers who hire workers on a contingent basis do not directly pay for workers’ compensation and health insurance, they are likely to be insulated from premium adjustments based on the cost of workers’ injuries. As a result, employers of contingent labor may escape the financial incentives that are a main driver of business decisions to eliminate hazards for other workers."Click here to read "At the Company’s Mercy: Protecting Contingent Workers from Unsafe Working Conditions"
Saturday, July 10, 2010
House Cleaners Not Employees
A homeowner was not responsible under workers' compensation law for the injuries suffered by someone who was hired to clean the house. The Court held that individuals hired to perform basic cleaning services such as dusting, vacuuming, sweeping and bathroom cleaning did not establish an employee-employer relationship.
The reviewing tribunal, in affirming the trial court's decision, held that the relationship did not meet either "the right to control" or "relative nature of the work" tests.
Lopez v. Moser, Docket No. A-1535-09T21535-09T2, NJ App. Div., 201 WL 2696754, Decided July 9, 2010.
Click here for more information on how Jon L Gelman can assist you in a claim for workers' Compensation claim benefits. You may e-mail Jon Gelman or call 1-973-696-7900.
The reviewing tribunal, in affirming the trial court's decision, held that the relationship did not meet either "the right to control" or "relative nature of the work" tests.
Lopez v. Moser, Docket No. A-1535-09T21535-09T2, NJ App. Div., 201 WL 2696754, Decided July 9, 2010.
Click here for more information on how Jon L Gelman can assist you in a claim for workers' Compensation claim benefits. You may e-mail Jon Gelman or call 1-973-696-7900.
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