In a recent ruling, Jinks v. Credico (USA) LLC, 177 N.E.3d 509 (Mass. 2021), three individual Plaintiffs brought suit alleging that the Defendant jointly employed them with another entity. The Massachusetts court applied a "totality of the circumstances" test to determine the Plaintiffs' status instead of the more employee-friendly "ABC" test. In doing so, the Court held the Defendant was not a joint employer. This case is important for franchisors concerned that they may be in joint employment relationships with their franchisees' employees.
Credico USA, LLC ("Credico"), a client broker for independent direct marketing companies, contracted with DFW Consultants, Inc. ("DFW") for DFW to provide regional door-to-door sales services. DFW in turn hired Kyana Jinks, Antwione Taylor, and Lee Tremblay as salespersons to work on various marketing campaigns for Credico's telecommunications and energy clients. DFW classified Jinks and Taylor as independent contractors and Tremblay as an employee.
In June 2019, Jinks, Taylor, and Tremblay filed suit against Credico alleging that Credico, as Plaintiffs' joint employer with DFW, violated Massachusetts law by misclassifying Jinks and Taylor as independent contractors. Tremblay's claim was limited to one of an employment relationship with Credico because there was no dispute about his relationship with DFW. Additionally, each Plaintiff alleged that Credico was their employer, too, and violated Massachusetts law by failing to...
Community Notes, which allows users to contribute notes that add context or corrections to posts, was introduced by X in late 2022 and the same model is increasingly being adopted by other tech pl...