Instructions: Here is the link to the article, I have also pasted the text below
ID: 385594 • Letter: I
Question
Instructions:
Here is the link to the article, I have also pasted the text below:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/08/14/she-thought-she-was-entitled-to-maternity-leave-after-asking-for-it-she-lost-her-job
Every weekday for the past two and a half years, Ariel Wilson Cetrone showed up for work in the morning at a small District government agency, poring over grant applications and performance reviews for the arts projects she oversaw. Her name was listed on the staff directory on the agency’s Web site, she had a D.C. government e-mail address, cell phone, and business cards, and put in 40 hours just like everybody else.
But she wasn’t like everyone else. Cetrone was a contractor, along with two other staffers at the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and therefore not entitled to benefits like workers compensation or unemployment insurance — or more importantly when she became pregnant, the eight weeks of paid family leave that D.C. government employees get.
“They made us look to the public like we were full-time employees, but we didn’t have any of the benefits,” Cetrone says.
Cetrone thought it was unfair she’d have to take time off to have a baby without pay. But it didn’t strike her that there was anything untoward about it — until she began seeing reports on all the lawsuits over misclassification in the “sharing economy,” alleging that everyone from Uber drivers to Homejoy cleaners should be treated as employees rather than contractors.
“I started looking at my contract, and reading all the articles about Uber,” Cetrone says. “And I’m like, if these people are working 20 to 50 hours a week, then maybe my contract isn’t legal.”
When she raised her concerns, she soon found herself out of a job.
An employment attorney who reviewed her contract — speaking on background so as to avoid the perception of giving legal advice in a case he was not handling — says her contact does appear to include responsibilities normally reserved for employees. Duties like monitoring grant performance can be inherently governmental in nature, the attorney says, and the contract matches many criteria listed by the Department of Labor as being indicative of an employee-employer relationship.
A spokesman for the Commission on the Arts and Humanities said Cetrone was ultimately let go because of a funding error, not because any mistake been made in the classification of her job. The agency is still reviewing the classification issue. "Like many governments and large institutions, the District retains contractors to perform important duties,” says the spokesman, Joaquin McPeek. “We need to take a look at our contracting and procurement policies to make sure that we are best serving contractors, employees and residents.”
But if the District misstepped, it wouldn’t be the only one. Disputes over the role of contractors are becoming commonplace after the federal government and others outsourced many functions.
“I see this all the time,” says Alan Lescht, whose law firm deals largely with federal employees and contractors. “Companies think they can hire someone as an independent contractor to avoid paying benefits and overtime, and when they look carefully into their roles, more often than not they’ve been misclassified.”
And more people might be taking second looks at their contracts these days. The federal government and state labor agencies have been cracking down on misclassification, which allows companies to dodge taxes and other overhead associated with bringing on full-time employees, and is especially prevalent in low-wage industries like construction and trucking. But it happens in white-collar jobs too, and now the media attention is waking up those workers to the idea that their employers could be part of the trend.
"When the Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal all report these things, there is a considerable readership,” says Richard Reibstein, a specialist in independent contracting with Pepper Hamilton in New York. “They say 'hey, maybe I shouldn’t be an independent contractor.'”
Then read the article in the assignment instructions and share your thoughts - was the woman properly classified?
Explanation / Answer
Ariel Wilson Cetrone working at District government agency like all other staff was not properly classified.
It is stated that Cetrone was a contractor therefore not entitled to benefits like workers compensation, unemployment insurance, eight weeks of paid family leave like other D.C. government employee.
However, criteria listed by the Department of Labor for establishing employee-employer relationship shows that her work and her relation with agency falls under this category.
Also, many landmark judgments and principles of law states that it has to be the nature of work that the employee carries out at workplace that may decide whether the person is employee or contractor. It is also true that many companies to avoid their obligations that they otherwise would need making a person employee appoint people as contractor where their rights are minimal as compared to other employees. This benefits the company in not obeying ther obligation for person who works for them.