The Ohio-based Cascom, Inc. was found liable for nearly $1.5-million for misclassified independent contractors and the MLB’s San Francisco Giants have paid $545K in back wages for not properly paying workers. What do these settlements mean to your company?
These continued large settlements secured by the Department of Labor should be a wake-up call to all companies. A review of your company’s workforce should be at the top of your company’s “to do” list to assure that:
Your employees are correctly classified; and,
Your employees are correctly paid for all overtime worked.
Employers cannot classify a worker as an “independent contractor” just because they want to be or because you think they can be. There are specific questions and tests that companies should be utilizing to ensure that all of your employees are properly classified under FLSA regulations. This also applies to Exempt/Non-Exempt status.
Don’t bury your head in the sand – there may be a land mine! “Educate don’t Litigate” is PMP’s motto – we strive to make companies pro-active in their workplace compliance matters, so that they diminish their exposure to these types of large settlements. Will you be saying, “We should have called PMP!”