Employment: independent contractors.

Existing law prescribes comprehensive requirements relating to minimum wages, overtime compensation, and standards for working conditions for the protection of employees applicable to an employment relationship. This bill would prohibit willful misclassification, as defined, of individuals as independent contractors. The bill also would prohibit charging individuals who have been mischaracterized as independent contractors a fee or making deductions from compensation, as specified, where those acts would have violated the law if the individuals had not been mischaracterized. The bill would authorize the Labor and Workforce Development Agency to assess specified civil penalties from, and would require the agency to take other specified disciplinary actions against, persons or employers violating these prohibitions. It would also require the agency to notify the Contractors' State License Board of a violator that is a licensed contractor, and require the board to initiate an action against the licensee. The bill would authorize an individual to file a complaint, as specified, to request the Labor Commissioner to issue a determination that a person or employer has violated these prohibitions with regard to the individual filing the complaint. The bill would authorize the Labor Commissioner to assess civil and liquidated damages against a person or employer based on a determination that the person or employer has violated these prohibitions. This bill would provide that a person who, for money or other valuable consideration, knowingly advises an employer to treat an individual as an independent contractor to avoid employee status for the individual shall be jointly and severally liable with the employer if the individual is not found to be an independent contractor. This bill would exempt from the provisions regarding joint and several liability a person who provides advice to his or her employer or an attorney who provides legal advice in the course of practicing law.