Legal Question in Employment Law in California
What recourse, if any, is there if you are NOT hired for a job because you refused to be miss-classified as 1099 instead of W2.
Im talking there was a job offer, and during the course of the final negotiations the subject of classification came up and they wanted to Illegally classify you as 1099 instead of W2.
This is in the state of California specifically.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Probably very little.
It is improper to not hire someone because they refuse to be misclassified. On the other hand, there may be proof issues here. You will likely have a he said/she said as to whether that discussion ever occurred. The employer can come up with a reason as to why they preferred someone else other than you, and you will have to prove pretext (though if that person is a 1099, you may have an easier time of it). And, you will have a question of damages. Since you were never hired, it may be speculative that you would have remained there very long. As such, you may not have much recovery.
You can talk to a employee-side labor lawyer to see if you have a claim worth pursuing, but I foresee a real risk of an uphill battle here.
What recourse?
None, unless you simply want to file a complaint with the EDD and State Franchise Tax Board about the company trying to hide and avoid tax payments. Unlikely they will be interested since no law was YET broken..
Look for other work.
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