Ummm… I’m a long time reader of the SDMB… haven’t posted or, indeed, signed up until today. love it lots.
Are there any legal guidelines for employers w/ ‘contract labor’? I have a truly distressing little anecdote:
I worked for a company doing color corrections, photomanipuulations, data entry and various other office duties. This company paid me $8/hr, nothing withheld, no benefits, no overtime. I worked 5-8hr days (someitmes longer) with a half an hour lunch break usually spent at the desk, 6-7 days a week, before I left.
Now one of my friends has been roped in to the same position… And we’re wondering … Is it legal to do this to your employees? And if it isn’t, are there any options for my friend?
Since you are a contractor, you are bound by the contract you created when you started working.
Also, since you are a contract employee, they are not required to cover you if you are injured on the job, no benefits, etc…
Mine was a simple contract, work 20 hours a week at such and such dollars. If my hours went over 40, I would assess them an additional fee plus, after hours, I could charge them extra. I never did charge them extra, they were so cool. Also, if I had gotten hurt they would have paid my bills, they are that type of company.
As a contract employee, you are essentially employed by yourself or the company that contracted you out. It works the same way with construction. While the main employer is required to follow OSHA standards, beyond that they aren’t required to do anything other than provide you those things set in your contract.
Maybe, maybe not. The OP is a state-specific, context-specific question that is nearly impossible to answer on this board. For example, in Ohio, where I’m from, a “contract employee” would be considered a simple “employee” for Workers’ Compensation purposes. As for state wage & hours laws, it is an open legal question.
There was no actual written contract. There was an agreed upon wage, and somewhat open hours, although both my friend and myself took it to mean ‘close to normal business working hours per week’. It has now become something akin to ‘slave labor’(maybe its just me) with the Bossman adding extra duties and longer hours that were not mentioned in the original spoken contract.
Maybe its just a real bad man, taking advanatage of some dumb country kids in Hawaii and doing it through some legal loop hole. maybe I should stop whining and figure out a way for us to get un-screwed the next time. This guy is real not ‘cool’ like your former employer, techchick68. I wish everybody was as lucky as you!
What constitutes a contractor under IRS rules is often far different from what many perceive that situation to be. I ran my own company for many years, and my partner and I tended to err on the side of caution and make anybody in the debateable class a bona-fide employee. Which of course means we carried Workmen’s Comp on everybody.
If I hired a company to go out and do field work for me, with their employees, they were without a doubt contractors. If I had someone come into my office to install network cables or telephone extensions, they were contractors. And I required insurance certificates from all contractors. But if I had someone come to my office and do scheduled work for my company, and they had no other office of their own, then they were an employee.
At this point I have to ask if you or your friend actually have a written contract describing the business relationship.
The IRS has several tests for whether one can or should be considered a contractor versus an employee. One that blows my mind is the contract employees who have a business card with the contracting company’s logo, address, main number and their name. I believe that will fail the IRS test every time.