Recently, the Washington Post reported that Ariel Wilson Cetrone, who was a pregnant worker at a government agency of two and a half years, requested maternity leave. Silly woman – her workplace didn’t offer such a thing for independent contractors, and how dare she ask? They fired her. Unemployment insurance? She won’t get that, either, because she was never an employee. Or was she? Cetrone worked 40 hours a week, had a company business card and cellphone - on the surface, she looked like an employee.

While nothing is inherently wrong with being an independent contractor – some prefer the freedom of freelancing – they are a class of workers that are more vulnerable to abuse than those classified as employees, who receive benefits like worker’s compensation, health insurance and unemployment insurance should the need arise.

Independent contractors need to shoulder all of the costs that they incur when working. Ads on Craigslist for Uber, for example, promise you can “Earn $1,136/wk as a Partner Driver With Uber”. The problem is you are not really a “partner” with Uber, whatever that means, but more of a modern-day sharecropper. If you need a car, you may find yourself driving around with the added burden of paying off the high-interest lease that Uber helped you secure.

One of the other problems with independent contractors are that they are often misclassified. I had a feeling that I was misclassified as an independent contractor when I applied for unemployment after I was laid off from a popular blog at the end of 2008. I was rejected for benefits, with an explanation stating that I was not an employee and therefore not eligible for unemployment insurance.

Eventually, I discovered the IRS’s “20-Factor Test,” which determines whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. Was I or wasn’t I?

It turns out I had been a real, live employee. It wasn’t a moment of shock but more of a “duh” feeling. The company was young, flying by the seat of their pants and they weren’t about to give away anything they didn’t have to. (The nature of my former company and the way it classifies its workers has changed since then, and workers now receive an array of benefits not available when I was employed there.)

A look at the test made me certain I could contest my ruling. It showed that I fit into various categories that would classify me as an employee.

For example, as part of the 20-Factor test, to fit the description of an employee, I had to have set hour of work – in my case, from 9.30am to 6pm. I had to work full time to complete my duties. I also had “instructions,” or a boss, someone who gave me directions on “when, where, and how” to perform my work. However, the company didn’t supply us bloggers with the tools to do our work like they would with employees – we used our personal computers.

We didn’t receive healthcare or any other benefits. If we called in sick, we’d lose whatever money we would have earned in page views that day. That said, being paid by the “hour, week or month” indicated an employer-employee relationship, according to the IRS, and we were paid monthly.

The way I won unemployment was a long and tedious: I printed out old emails from my editors, printed out blog posts to show that I worked every day and bank statements showing direct deposits from the company, since I never received pay stubs. The process took so long that one day, I woke up to $7,000 in my bank account – back pay for the grim victory of unemployment benefits.

Getting a 1099 instead of a W2 doesn’t mean you don’t have a shot at certain benefits, should you have the tenacity to go after them.

Dignity and respect from employers, however – you’ll have to fight for that.