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Are app-summoned workers contractors? Suits seek protections; profs say new category needed

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Workers who find jobs through apps such as Uber are questioning whether they are being wrongly classified as independent contractors who aren’t covered by minimum-wage laws and other protections.

Lawsuits filed against cleaning and handyman service Handy and digital jobs service CrowdFlower claim workers are employees, rather than contractors, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports.

The CrowdFlower suit, for example, claims the workers are employees because of the company’s detailed instructions on how to perform the work and its algorithms monitoring work product, the story says. One suit against Handy cites strict guidelines governing things such as knocking on customers’ doors and using their bathrooms.

Some legal scholars are suggesting expansion of the two-category model that classifies workers as employees or contractors, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports in a related story. They suggest a third category of “dependent contractor” for those who take on project-based work, are economically dependent on the employer, but have little bargaining leverage or power in work assignments.

These dependent contractors would have some protections, but not the full-fledged protections afforded employees. New York University law professor Wilma Liebman, former chairwoman of the National Labor Relations Board, backed the idea in a dissent in a case before the NLRB.