The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has just published a new proposed rule addressing whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The proposed rule, published on Oct. 13, 2022, is the latest effort by successive administrations to regulate the independent contractor relationship. Importantly, the proposed rule does not directly affect independent contractor classification under state laws utilizing the "ABC" test, such as California, Massachusetts and New Jersey, to name a few. However, the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking does specifically call out "[h]igh incidence[s] of misclassification of employees as independent contractors" in trucking and gig economy companies, among others.
The proposed rule would rescind the previous rule from January 2021 and replace it with a non-exhaustive, six-factor test that is likely to make businesses more reluctant to engage independent contractors. The proposed rule is also likely to encourage and incentivize legal action against businesses for worker misclassification claims such as overtime, minimum wage, and other ancillary wage and hour claims under applicable state law. The listed factors in the proposed rule are: 1) opportunity for profit or loss depending on managerial skill; 2) investments by the worker and the employer; 3) degree of permanence of the work relationship; 4) nature and degree of control; 5) extent to which the work performed is an integral part of...
You are reading the second issue of the Disinformation Monitor. It is published on a monthly basis and provides an overview of developments on the disinformation scenes on NATO’s eastern frontier....