A Wage and Hour Defense Blog post titled “California Supreme Court Adopts “ABC Test” for Independent Contractors,” co-authored by Michael S. Kun and Kevin Sullivan, was cited in HR Dive, in “New California Independent Contractor Test Assumes Workers Are Employees,” by Kate Tornone.
Following is an excerpt:
California’s Supreme Court on April 30 adopted a test for independent contractors that generally assumes workers are employees (Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County, No. S222732).
The so-called ABC test, according to the court, allows a worker to be properly classified as an independent contractor (if no state wage order applies) only if the hiring entity establishes: (A) that the worker is free from the control and direction of the hirer in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of such work and in fact; (B) that the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and (C) that the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature as the work performed for the hiring entity.
The ABC test presumptively considers all workers to be employees, the Court said, and permits workers to be classified as independent contractors only if all three prongs of the test are satisfied. …
In light of the new ruling, “entities doing business in California that treat some workers as independent contractors will want to review their relationship under the ‘ABC test’ to determine whether any or all such workers should be reclassified,” recommended Epstein Becker Green attorneys in a blog post.
