In assessing whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor, the Eleventh Circuit recently re-confirmed that it “does not care about the label put on the relationship by the parties.” Galarza v. One Call Claims, LLC involved three insurance adjusters who worked for Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA). TWIA engaged the services of One Call Claims, LLC (OCC), a business that staffed insurance companies with adjusters. The plaintiffs, who had all entered into written independent contractor agreements with OCC, sued, alleging that both companies had misclassified them and failed to pay them overtime wages they were entitled to as “employees” under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
The plaintiffs handled claims for TWIA on a full-time basis for approximately two years. During that time, they could not work for other carriers without terminating their contractual relationship with TWIA. They used their own phones and cars, and maintained their own professional licenses, but had no control over their rate of pay or hours. Moreover, TWIA prescribed the manner in which the plaintiffs were to perform their jobs, even when it shifted them to remote work.
The Eleventh Circuit used the six-factor framework provided in Scantland v. Jeffrey Knight, Inc., 721 F.3d 1308, 1311–12 (11th Cir. 2013), to assess the misclassification claim. The court pointed out that no single factor is determinative or outweighs any other. Rather, the proper test of whether a worker is...
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