Dependent contractor ‘has a degree of vulnerability and dependence on the employer,’ says lawyer
A company owned and operated by a worker that contracted trucking delivery services for 14 years was a dependent contractor entitled to 10 months’ notice of termination of the contract, a British Columbia court has ruled.
The classification of dependent contractor is between the traditional employee and independent contractor identifications, says Trevor Thomas, partner and co-founder of Ascent Employment Law in Vancouver.
“Over a period of time, this new type of worker emerged where they weren’t quite an employee or independent contractor and they fell in the middle of the spectrum,” he says. “This type of person has a degree of vulnerability and dependence on the employer and they don’t have the same leverage an independent contractor would have, but they still aren’t quite in an employee relationship - that’s why courts have developed the third category of dependent contractor.”
The worker, 61, owned and operated Borly Holdings, a commercial trucking business of which he was the sole shareholder and director. In 2010, Borly entered into an agreement with Country Lumber, a company selling construction materials to large and small construction and building customers in Langley, BC. Country Lumber had its own fleet of trucks and drivers to deliver its products, but it also contracted out delivery to owner-operators of trucks.
There was no formal written agreement, and Borly had...
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