Employee or Independent Contractor? It Depends on Why You're Asking

• Author: Azita Iskandar
• Position: Azita Iskandar is an attorney at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC in Los Angeles, California. She is a member of the firm's Litigation Group. Her practice focuses on intellectual property, First Amendment, right of publicity, contract disputes, labor and employment issues in the film industry, and film clearance. She can be reached at aiskandar...
• Pages: 44-47

42 ©2019. Published in Landslide®, Vol. 11, No. 5, May/June 2019, by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or

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and speculation as to what kind of effect it will have on the

“gig economy.” Additionally, given that a worker’s classica-

tion can determine copyright ownership, Dynamex has led to

some uncertainty regarding what kind of effect the decision

may have on the copyright ownership of a myriad of works

made by writers, photographers, producers, programmers,

musicians, and other creative individuals working in Califor-

nia’s entertainment and tech industries.

While Dynamex may indeed have serious implications for

California’s workers and its gig economy, its effects on copy-

right ownership will likely be negligible. That is because

Dynamex pertains to worker classication for purposes of the

California wage orders, not necessarily for other purposes.

And when it comes to determining whether a worker should

Employee or Independent

Contractor?

It Depends on Why You’re Asking

By Azita Iskandar

In April 2018, the California Supreme Court issued its

decision in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior

Court of Los Angeles,1 a closely watched case that looked

at whether drivers working for a delivery company should

be categorized as independent contractors or employees

under the California wage orders. The decision established

a standard whereby all workers in California are presumed to

be employees for purposes of the California wage orders.2 If a

hiring party wishes to categorize a worker as an independent

contractor, the burden is on that hiring party to show that such

a classication is proper under the newly adopted “ABC test.”

Dynamex has considerable signicance for California

workers, businesses, and the public generally.3 The decision

has resulted in much hand-wringing among business owners,