{"id":322884,"date":"2025-11-28T08:15:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T08:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/legal\/home-health-care-company-gets-whacked-in-misclassification-claim-who-is-my-employee\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T08:15:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T08:15:11","slug":"home-health-care-company-gets-whacked-in-misclassification-claim-who-is-my-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=322884","title":{"rendered":"Home Health Care Company Gets Whacked in Misclassification Claim \u2013 Who Is My Employee?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Alabama jewelry store owner Slater Jones owns a two-carat diamond. That might not seem surprising, but stay with me here. Jones keeps the diamond in his eye. Literally, in his eye<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You see, Jones lost his right eye to illness. Rather than living with a boring old prosthetic eye that looks like, well, an eye, Jones engaged eye prosthetic expert John Lin to create a custom artificial eye from a diamond.<\/p>\n

Having a diamond for an eye may seem a bit gaudy, but I guess if you\u2019re in the jewelry business, you may as well just go for it.<\/p>\n

Those in the home health care business, on the other hand, should not just go for it \u2014 especially if \u201cit\u201d is classifying in-home health aides as independent contractors. <\/p>\n

In a settlement<\/a> finalized earlier this month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta secured a $9.5 million settlement against the individual owners<\/em> of a home health care company for misclassifying its workers in violation of California law.<\/em> In this case, the owners appears to have operated the home health agency as a d\/b\/a without having incorporated. Oopsie. The settlement included another $1.5 million against a different incorporated home health care entity and its family of owners.<\/p>\n

The settlement also prohibited all of the defendants from classifying their aides as independent contractors in the future.<\/p>\n

We have seen a lot of recent cases brought against home health care companies that classify their workers as independent contractors. This settlement is a stern warning that home health care companies choosing that model need to be extremely cautious.<\/p>\n

Because this case was brought by the State, some of the protections we often recommend, like individual arbitration agreements with class action waivers, provide no protection. This case and the settlement also serve as a reminder that individuals can be held liable for intentional misclassification.<\/p>\n

The claims brought against the agencies focused largely on California\u2019s Unfair Competition Law (UCL). Misclassification allegations under the UCL typically claim that the wrongdoer gained an improper advantage in the marketplace by unlawfully classifying employees as independent contractors.<\/p>\n

Treating in-home aides as contractors may seem like a bright shiny object worth pursuing. But that sparkle you see is no diamond. It\u2019s just the gleam in the eye of the State Attorney General, preparing to count the cash from another misclassification settlement. <\/p>\n

Classify wisely, my friends.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2025 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n

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