Statutory employees

jealeb

I represent a Massachusetts company that hires several people to translate their documents. They work by piece and not per hour. We give them the documents to be translated and they work from home. Reading the IRS guidelines, I feel they qualify as a statutory employee. Does anyone know if this is correct? From what I read, we have to deduct medicare and social security but no Federal withholding.

Does anyone have an agreement for statutory employees that I could use to draft our arrangement? Also does anyone know if we are required to offer employee benefits or unemployment when the job ends? I wouldn't think so but want to double check.

Susan Fentin MA

There are several tests that are used to determine employee status, and the IRS test is only one of them. The more restrictive test, and the one that you really need to pass in Massachusetts, is the Massachusetts Independent Contractor law, which basically makes it very difficult to have an independent contractor relationship with the worker. If the workers are truly independent contractors (and I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that I have told a client that the worker qualified for independent contractor status), they may still be employees for the purpose of unemployment benefits, which is a different test as well. Bottom line, you should contact labor and employment counsel to review the status of these workers, the work that they do, and whether or not you should be considering them employees. The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office has been cracking down on companies who are skirting the legal requirements by not treating workers as employees where they should be so treated. Good luck.

Susan Fentin, Associate Editor, Massachusetts Employment Law Letter
Skoler, Abbott and Presser, PC
One Monarch Place, Springfield, MA 01144
[email]sfentin@skoler-abbott.com[/email]

Sharon McKnight SPHR

To Jealeb,

Your first post!

Welcome to the Forum. We're happy to have you with us.

Sharon


:welcome: