Legal Question in Employment Law in California
hi,
i have been a contractor with my company for a total of 4.5 years doing the job
of a full time employee. my contract will expire shortly, after which my contract
cannot be renewed because of a "new" california law stating that contractors must
be terminated or converted to full time employees after a year of work. from what i
understand my job will be outsourced as the rest of my teams contracts come to
an end this year. this comes after a push to convert all contractors in my field to full
time employees. i am not being terminated, my contract apparently cannot be
renewed by law. the loophole is that i can get a new contract in 3 months.
my question is: is this a new california law as of 2010? if not, were my past contract renewals
lawful? is it possible for one to remain a contractor for longer than the allotted 6 months/year
legally or is this an abuse of another loophole?
thanks
1 Answer from Attorneys
I am not aware of any "new" law that prevents businesses from renewing it contracts with independent contractors. I would venture to guess that this company has been advised to sever ties before it runs the risk of being audited for misclassifying you as an independent contractor.
There are many factors that distinguish the difference between an employee and an independent contractor, but one of those factors is the length of the relationship. True contractors are typically brought in for a short time to perform a specific job. The longer the relationship goes on, the more likely the law could consider you an employee, which means that the company may have violated a number of state and federal laws.
If you wish to know more about your rights, you should take the time to explain all of the facts to an employment law attorney in your area.
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