Incident: While driving the cab, Hemmerling was injured in an accident and filed
ID: 424443 • Letter: I
Question
Incident: While driving the cab, Hemmerling was injured in an accident and filed a claim against Happy Cab in a Nebraska state court for Worker's Compensation benefits. Such benefits are not available to independent contractors.
Outcome: The Supreme Court of Nebraska determined that he was in fact an employee.
Question: Do you agree with the courts decision, why or why not? There is no right or wrong answer, I am looking to see how well you argue your point based on the facts of the case, the IRS standards and the court ruling.
**For Business Law but there is no Business law option**
Explanation / Answer
The drivers who work for cab aggregators are more of employees than mere contractors. This has been established in some previous rulings involving cases with companies like Uber. The resons why the cab drivers should be considred as an employee are given below.
(a) The drivers work under reasonable control of the company. They are not authorised to move, stop or charge according to their own will when they are "logged on" to duty. The terms of contract mey be terminated if the conduct and work of the driver is not as per the norms laid down by the company.
(b) The drivers are required to comply with the law of the land and need to complete the documentation as required by the law. They need to take the drug test, wear the name badges and unifrom, keep the vehicle in a condition determined in writing and do many tasks either for the sake of law or to honour the aggregator's instructions.
(c) The drivers are always monitored for their activity in each aspect, such as punctuality, efficiency, log rate, responsiveness, mannerism and vehicle upkeep through inspection or customer ratings, which are displayed on his / her profile.
Based on these regulations on the driver it will be appropriate to call them employees. However, this decision might be reversed in the cases where the company gives absolute freedom of operations to the drivers and the only realtionship between the two parties is the transaction of money in lieu of car hire for a specified time.