Legal Question in Employment Law in Tennessee

Re: Terms of Employment

Unfortunately you do not have many options. You are correct that the change may have tax implications. That will depend on if they are planning to give you a 1099 or W-2. If they continue to give you a W-2 it should not be a problem. If they give you a 1099 and do not change your duties, they are probably breaking the law. (I am not a tax lawyer. Once they tell you how they are going to treat you, you should contact a tax professional.)

As far as legal options, they are entitled to change the terms and conditions of your employment including compensation as long as you do not have a contract with them otherwise or they are treating one group of employees (with the same job duties) differently than others. They also can only do it prospectively. In other words, they cannot tell you at the end of a pay period that they are changing the compensation terms for the pay period just ending, but they can tell you at the end of the pay period that beginning the next day the compensation structure is going to change. I guess the alternative for them was to change the pay structure for everybody or let folks go. I hope you can work this out. Good luck. Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions or needs.