1. Are You Willing to Take the Risk?
Employers are being held liable for employee misclassification. In a wage-and-hour class action
suit filed by food and beverage vendors working in California entertainment areas, the
California Court of Appeal has ruled that a state Labor Code provision making it unlawful for an
employer to “engage” in the willful misclassification of an individual as an independent
contractor applies not only to the employer who made the misclassification, but also to any
employer who knew they willingly made the misclassification and failed to remedy the
misclassification. See Noe v. Superior Court (Cal. Ct. App. June, 2015).
Willful misclassification carries a civil penalty of up to $25,000 dollars for each individual who
had been willfully classified as an independent contractor under Section 226.8. Are you willing
to take this risk?
This case should remind California employers of the importance of properly classifying and
paying employees. For employers outside the state of California, be warned, more than likely
this is what is to come. Work with someone you can trust, as experts focused on the
compliance and administration of your contract workers we go above and beyond your
traditional payroll or staffing vendor model to ensure that your contract and temporary
workforce is managed right and are classified properly. Don’t try and mitigate the legal waters
on your own, let us help.