From the National Law Review, Brittany Blackburn Koch associate at McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie and Kirkland, PLLC, discusses the consequences of misclassifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees. In addition to the tax consequences and the consequences of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), she discusses the workers’ compensation and intellectual property issues. She writes:
Workers’ Compensation
Similar to the ACA considerations mentioned above, proper classification of employees is incredibly important in light of workers’ compensation insurance. The failure to provide workers’ compensation insurance can be costly, particularly if an injured worker classified as an independent contractor was actually an employee.
Copyright Interests
This issue was thoroughly discussed in another recent McBrayer post, but copyright interests in works created by an employee generally belong to the employer, while copyright interests in works created by an independent contractor generally do not. Employers should be very wary over signing agreements with independent contractors concerning copyrighted works, as statutory language can trump contract provisions.
Read the full story at Employees vs. Independent Contractors: The Consequences of Misclassification
