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The National Labor Relations Act (Act) protects employees’ right to unionize (and not unionize), and to engage in other “protected concerted activity.” These are basic rights guaranteed to employees under Section 7 of the Act.
Critically, the Act’s protections only extend to “employees"—not to “independent contractors.”
The number of workers labeled “independent contractor” has steadily increased over the past decade. Similarly, the number of independent contractors who have been found to be improperly classified as contractors instead of employees has also increased. Such misclassification of employees as independent contractors creates significant issues for employers, including under state and federal wage and hour laws, as well as under state unemployment compensation and workers compensation laws. Now, it appears that misclassification will soon lead to consequences under the Act once again.
Over the past several presidential administrations, the National Labor Relations Board (Board) has grappled with the question of whether, aside from any overt conduct which itself may violate the Act, the misclassification of an employee as an “independent contractor” itself constitutes a per se violation of the Act.
President Biden’s NLRB is expected to return to precedent set by President Obama’s Board finding that such misclassifications violate the Act, and may have the opportunity to rule on the issue soon. If this reversal occurs, we...
ANKARA — US President Donald Trump made a series of “false” and “uncorroborated” claims about the Iran conflict and his foreign policy record during a recent press conference, according to a fact ...