PPB March 2020

If they have their own tax ID, infrastructure, computer and systems, the person would probably meet the C condition on the ABC test. That helps but they are still not independent because you have to go back to A and B on the test: how much control does the company have over the worker and is the worker performing work outside the usual course of business? Under the multi-factor Borello test, you don’t have to meet all of them, so that’s a check box on the independent contractor side. But when you’re talking about the overall relationship, look at how permanent is it? How much direction is there? Is it part of the business? Just because you have a tax ID number doesn’t make you an independent contractor. You still have to meet all of the requirements. If the company is in California but the sales are done in Florida, does this law apply and conversely, if the company is in Florida but sales are done through reps in California, is it only the reps in California who need to be employees? This law applies to California employees. If the company is based in Florida but has employees who work in California, it applies to them but not to salespeople in Florida or anywhere else. If the company is based in California and has employees in Florida, it’s not going to apply to the Florida employees, but it will to those in California. Also, employment law refers to where the employee is working, not where the employee lives. For example, if the employee lives in Oregon and commutes to California to work, it applies there—even if the employee works in California only part of the time. Additional Resources • State of California Department of Industrial Relations: www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/faq_ independentcontractor.htm • CalChamber: www.calchamber.com/ california-labor-law/ independent-contractor | MARCH 2020 | 95 THINK