Massachusetts Employment Law Blog

A parent corporation who franchises out their business can be found liable for the franchisee’s unpaid wages. In Depianti v. Jan-Pro Franchising International, Inc., Depianti will now be able to claim against Jan-Pro, even though he does not directly work for them. Depianti was misclassified as an independent contractor instead of an employee by the…

Should LLC managers escape the Wage Act because they avoid the titles “President” and “Treasurer.” Definitely not. Peter Cook filed action for unpaid wages against Patient Edu, LLC and two of its managers, Steven Graziano and Michael Schulman. The managers argued that they could not be liable for unpaid wages, because the company was an…

Serious failure to reimburse employees for the business expenses they incur in their jobs may be tantamount to unlawful deductions from wages. In Fraelick v. PerkettPR, Inc., Fraelick sought such reimbursement from her employer, after a couple years’ worth of failures. While business expenses had never counted as unpaid wages under the Wage Act, the…

Live and work as a driver in New York? Independent contractors working in New York recently received the benefits of Massachusetts law. A Massachusetts Court just ruled that people who live and work in New York, but are employed by a Massachusetts company with a Massachusetts contract, can bring an action against their employer based…

Temporary warehouse workers in Nevada won a pay case about unpaid security checks. The decision came from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In Busk v. Integrity Staffing Solutions, the court ruled that exit security scans may count as paid work time under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Workers claimed the…

Drivers challenged contractor labels and won stronger rights. The decision came from the Supreme Judicial Court in Martins v. 3PD, Inc. The court explained that drivers completed core delivery work, which falls inside the company’s normal business role. As a result, companies cannot label this work as an outside service. Later, the court confirmed that…

Companies are bought and sold on a regular basis, and a question often arises as to whether the new owner is responsible for wage and hour violations. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals , in Teed v. Thomas & Betts Power Solutions, LLC, looked at just such a situation where one company bought another company’s…

The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) protects individuals who are associated with a disabled individual from employment discrimination. However, the ADA only applies to employers with 15 or more workers. The Massachusetts employment discrimination statute is a little more inclusive, covering employers with six or more workers.  Under the ruling of the Supreme Judicial Court…

Drive a truck with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) under 10,000 pounds? Then you are eligible for overtime. Importantly, the GVWR refers to the weight a vehicle can carry, not the weight it is actually carrying. The court decided that GVWR was more important than the actual weight, because the actual weight can easily…

A discretionary clause cannot remove earned commissions from wage protection. The Massachusetts Wage Act protects money workers truly earn. For instance, Prudential Insurance created a plan that let it interpret rules. It also warned employees it might deny commissions after firing for cause. Yet, the court found this wording too weak because workers had already…