Chicago-based Cragin Bank for Savings retained loan originators to obtain mortgage loan business. Each loan origina.

Although no labor or employment legislation has yet been enacted into law, the Montana Legislature is considering several bills of interest to employers.

This article summarizes the Ninth Circuit's decision in Vizcaino v. United States District Court (Microsoft Corporation) whereby the Court held that contingent workers (independent contractors and temporary agency employees) are entitled to retroactive stock purchase rights.

Federal Trade Commission staff opinion letter which analyzes whether an employer that enters into a bona fide independent contractor relationship must comply with the applicable provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

This article discusses the potential effect of Vizcaino v. Microsoft on classification of independent contractors.

The United States Supreme Court refused to review the controversial Ninth Circuit decision that held that Microsoft improperly denied benefits to workers originally hired as independent contractors and later reclassified as employees.

It is dangerous for an employer to assume that it owns an employee?s inventions merely because its employee invented them. Similarly, employees should not assume that they own inventions merely because they invented them at home. Employee-inventors present unique problems for the employer, and the answer to who owns an invention may depend on the type of invention. The rules for ownership of creations protected by a copyright differ from inventions protected by a patent.

I. Introduction The 1992 landmark case, Aymes v. Bonelli, on which I served as lead counsel for the defendant,[3] .

The IRS in looking at the status of a worker for a corporation looks at the employer's "right to control" that .

This article reviews the factors that are taken into account when determining if a worker is considered an employee or an independent contractor.

On October 9, 2003, The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. filed an amendment to its proposed listing standards concerning director independence and other corporate governance matters with the SEC. As a general rule, listed companies will need to be in compliance with the new rules prior to their 2004 annual shareholders meeting. Although widely expected to be in final form at this time, the proposals must be approved by the SEC before becoming final, and the SEC could require further revisions.

Companies today often designate a portion of their workforce as "freelancers", as part of their efforts to create a flexible workforce and reduce costs. In fact, however, the word "freelancer" has no legal meaning, and even its "ordinary" meaning is up for debate.

This article discusses a new January 1998 statute that affects accounting for individual or executive compensation.

This article summarizes the implications of the Microsoft III case and how to avoid misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor.

This article discusses the legal status and the rights of contingent workers-particularly in connection with exclusion from employee benefit programs-are in a state of flux.

Medicare recently revised its rule pertaining to the provision of incident-to services (services and supplies that .

This report discusses a recent court ruling that holds that companies must provide benefit services to independent contractors.

More changes to overtime laws. In case you haven't noticed, the laws relating to overtime pay are complicated and .

In the Fall, 1998 edition of the Stein Sperling Employment Law Digest, some of the more common pitfalls associated .

Some Arizona employers may be surprised to learn that their "at-will" employees have employment contracts. The Arizona Employment Protection Act explicitly states that the employment relationship is contractual in nature. This means that even if you do not have a written agreement with an employee, you still have a contract, but it is made up of all the promises, whether verbal or written, exchanged between the parties.

In recent years employers have substantially increased utilization of independent contractors and temporary (or .

Employers may face serious financial exposure when an individual the employer classified as an independent contract.

Employee versus independent contractor status is not only an issue with respect to classification for IRS purposes, but with respect to classification under other laws as well.

Senate Bill 179, which became effective January 1, 2004 as Labor Code Section 2810, substitutes a new doctrine of vicarious liability for the long-established separation between principal and independent contractor.  It does so by making it unlawful for a person or entity to enter into an agreement for labor services with a construction, farm labor, garment, janitorial or security guard contractor, where the person or entity knows or should know that the agreement does not include funds sufficient to enable the contractor to comply with all applicable local, state and federal laws or regulations governing the labor or services to be provided.  Proponents of the law may have been targeting certain well-known labor abuses, but the broad scope of the law, and its vague language, will raise issues for many "persons and entities" in California.

The Fair Labor Standards Act ("FLSA" or the "Act"), 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., sets basic minimum wage and overtime pay standards. Although many companies have difficulty determining which of their employees are exempt under the Act, most employers do not have much trouble determining who are their employees for FLSA purposes.

This update discusses the appeals of the case of Vizcaino v. Microsoft Corporation.

Our firm has developed a model provision designed to exclude contingent workers from benefit plans and other compe.

This article outlines when a worker is considered an independent contractor under California law. Employers often misclassify workers as independent contractors when they really should be classified as employees and this gives rise to serious consequences to the employer.

On November 4, 2003, the SEC approved final amendments to the NYSE and Nasdaq corporate governance listing standards. The final amendments are nearly unchanged from the proposed amendments summarized in our Public Company Advisories dated October 21, 2003. The principal new requirements for both NYSE and Nasdaq companies include the following items.

Completing a process that began in June 2002, the SEC is expected to approve the New York Stock Exchange’s new corporate governance listing standards. This Advisory discusses the proposed standards as published by the NYSE on October 9, 2003. In most cases, listed companies must comply with the new standards in time for their 2004 annual meeting.

This article details how employers are discovering that workers they once believed were independent contractors are instead viewed by courts as regular employees.

Common law rules define employer-employee relationship—a worker is an employee under the common law rules if the person for whom he works has the right to direct and control his work both as to the final results and as to the details of when, where and how the work is to be done, regardless of whether control is actually exercised

On July 24, 1997, the Ninth Circuit issued its long-awaited, enbanc decision in Vizcaino v. Microsoft Corporation, holding that certain employee benefits might have to be provided to individuals whom Microsoft had misclassified as independent contractors.

Businesses representing virtually every sector of the South Carolina economy "from textiles to technology" are tu.

This article details the potential effects of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruling in the Microsoft "temp" case.

For a start-up business, as for an established business, the prospect of retaining leased workers holds both benef.

Most companies structure employee benefit plans to provide benefits to employees of the company other than those w.

On December 1, 2003, the SEC approved the American Stock Exchange's proposed corporate governance reforms. The publication of these reforms marks the latest step in a process that began on June 23, 2003 when AMEX initially filed its proposed rule changes with the SEC.

Are property owners responsible for the safety of their independent contractor's employees or the contractor's negligence? If the contractor is truly "independent," the Delaware Superior and Supreme Courts say no. In Roca v. E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Delaware Superior Court's finding that property owners have no duty to protect an independent contractor's employees from alleged "peculiar risks" encountered during the performance of the contracted work.