New NLRB Decision: Independent Contractor Classification

Description

According to the U.S. Labor Department, some 10.6 million workers were classified as independent contractors in 2017. On Jan. 25, 2019, the NLRB issued a decision that impacts the way the agency differentiates between employees and independent contractors.

The employer/employee relationship is defined by a patchwork of federal, state and local laws. The distinction between employees and independent contractors is critical and difficult for employers and their counsel to pin down. Each law takes a slightly different approach to sort independent contractors from employees, and the courts and agencies that interpret those laws occasionally change the standards.

The 2019 NLRB SuperShuttle decision explicitly overrules their 2014 decision in FedEx Home Delivery. In this new decision, the NLRB re-established the importance of entrepreneurial activity by using that principle to evaluate the overall effect of each of the factors in the traditional, common-law analysis of the independent contractor relationship.

The ruling has implications for a range of businesses, including ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft, which rely on drivers who are independent contractors and not direct employees.

Listen as our distinguished panel guides employers and their counsel on how to classify workers in light of the new NLRB ruling. The panel will also discuss how to navigate the overlapping federal, state and local laws on classifying independent contractors, as well as best practices for drafting worker agreements.