{"id":172615,"date":"2025-04-05T23:55:22","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T23:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/legal\/turtle-in-your-pants-heres-a-whole-bunch-of-ways-misclassification-can-cost-you-who-is-my-employee\/"},"modified":"2025-04-05T23:55:22","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T23:55:22","slug":"turtle-in-your-pants-heres-a-whole-bunch-of-ways-misclassification-can-cost-you-who-is-my-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=172615","title":{"rendered":"Turtle in Your Pants? Here\u2019s a Whole Bunch of Ways Misclassification Can Cost You \u2013 Who Is My Employee?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A man was detained at Newark International Airport earlier this month for concealing<\/a> a live turtle in his pants. <\/p>\n

The turtle was detected as the man passed through TSA screening. When questioned about the bulge in his groin area, the man said he was just happy to see the TSA agent. No, that\u2019s not what happened at all. Instead, the man reached into his pants and pulled out a 5-inch long red-ear slide turtle.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether the turtle was a pet and whether the man was charged. But he did miss his flight. So let this be a lesson to all of us.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in California, an in-home healthcare agency learned the hard way that it was concealing a much larger problem. And this problem cost it $2.3 million in fines.<\/p>\n

As explained in this news release<\/a> from the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR), the agency had been classifying its in-home healthcare aides as independent contractors, not employees.<\/p>\n

After receiving a complaint, the DIR investigated and found that under California law, the aides should have been treated as employees. The Labor Commissioner issued citations under a relatively new section of the California Labor Code, making this the first enforcement action in which the civil penalties for misclassification were collected as damages for the affected workers, rather than as a penalty paid to the state. (How generous, California!)<\/p>\n

This enforcement action is an important reminder of three things.<\/p>\n

First, when the work performed is within the company\u2019s normal course of business, the workers are probably going to be deemed employees under California\u2019s ABC Test<\/a> (unless one of several exceptions applies). California law makes it very difficult to retain solo workers as independent contractors if you retain them to perform a core business function.<\/p>\n

Second, in-home health care is an industry in which misclassification maybe widespread, especially when applying California law. The business of in-home healthcare is to provide in-home healthcare. It\u2019s difficult to say that those who do the work are not employees.<\/p>\n

Finally, this action illustrates the breadth and depth of penalties a company can face for misclassifying its workers. The $2.3 million in penalties here included:<\/p>\n