Recent litigation in Massachusetts has focused on whether rideshare drivers for companies such as Lyft and Uber are misclassified as independent. In the case of Cunningham v. Lyft, Inc., No. 1:19-cv-11974-IT, 2020 WL 2616302 (D. Mass. May 22, 2020) a…
I previously wrote about the general issue of the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. This is a hot topic these days in employment litigation in Massachusetts. In this article, I want to focus briefly on the Massachusetts independent contractor…
Mary Kay beauty consultants and sales directors in New Jersey recently filed a class action lawsuit against Mary Kay, claiming that the company has misclassified them as independent contractors rather than employees, in violation of the New Jersey Wage Payment…
When tasked with interpreting the Massachusetts Wage Act, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (“SJC”) has consistently construed the words of the statute to fit within the broader purpose of the law. This method has, in effect, steadily expanded liability…
I’m a little late with this introductory post, but now that this page has garnered a bit of readership, I figured I would take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Nicholas Ortiz. I graduated from Vanderbilt University and…
Updated Oct. 2016 Employers love calling their workers independent contractors. As the SJC has pointed out, employers receive a windfall when they misclassify employees as independent contractors: The “windfall” the Legislature appeared most concerned with is the “windfall” that employers enjoy…