Independent contractor status and employer liability in negligent hiring cases

Lofty Lawn

What is Sarah's theory?

Will she succeed?

Sarah's theory is that Will Worker who collided in and damaged her4 car, is an employee of Larry's business, "Lofty Lawns." Since he is unable to pay for repairs of her car, her theory is that that his employers Larry's business, "Lofty Lawns" should pay for it and cover him.

She will not succeed, since the employer of Larry's business, "Lofty Lawns," has made each of his employees independent and hired them as their own workers. "He requires them to sign an "independent contractor" agreement that acknowledges they are independent contractors, not employees. " Wanting to keep costs to a minimum, Larry has each worker buy his own van, as well as maintain their own vehicle liability insurance (and show proof of insurance), and to pay for their own gas and truck maintenance. Will should have been responsible for this. Since he failed, Lofty Lawns is not to blame.

The only case, in which Larry Lawns may be held to blame, is if he intentionally hired a worker whom he knew to be careless with driving, or if he did not consult the employees' driving record.

Generally, an employer is not liable for an employee's criminal or tortious act, whether negligent or intentional... An exception exists in the case of a claim of negligent hiring. An employer may be held responsible for the criminal or wrongful acts of [his] [her] [its] employee, even if those acts occur outside the scope of employment, if the employer was negligent in the manner in which [he] [she] [it] hired, supervised or retained an inappropriate or unfit employee. (NEGLIGENT HIRING (4/07) If this were the case, Sarah can appeal.

2. TLC Pet Care (see attachment)

a. Are these policies at TLC Pet Care Centers in compliance with the law?

3. Theft of Time on the Internet

The internet is a staple of the modern office. Some companies are concerned that the Internet (and its e-mail application) leads to increased theft of time in the workplace. But, others argue that the Internet promotes efficiency of information.

a. What are your thoughts on this?

b. What are the parameters and the potential implications for failure to adhere to those parameters?

If the Internet is used for promoting the work and accomplishing assignments then, even if worker detours somewhat, the 'pilfering' of time for Internet is not theft of workplace hours. Ultimately, it all depends on how much time, the worker 'steals' for the Internet for matters that are not related to workplace need. If the worker spends, let's say, more than 1% of his time in browsing the internet for workplace unrelated matters, the worker may well be accused of theft.

The internet may be useful, and, indeed, necessary for the workplace. For some workplace environments (such as journalism) it is the raison deter of their job. However, if too much time is taken up in unrelated matters, such as in games, sending personal e-mails, browsing pornography, news or casual interests, the management may legitimately fire the worker on grounds of theft.

Cyberslackign, in fact, is a growing concern of organizations with estimates of U.S. productivity losses due to cyberslacking ranging as high as $178 billion annually. There are also financial losses due to reduced worker productivity, as well as relaxed and more vulnerable network security, strain in the organizational bandwidth, and the possibility that employers are more vulnerable to lawsuits due to employees not doing their work (or doing it improperly) and due to the theme of sites that they may browse (such as sexual) or issues that they may do with these sites (Vitek, J. (2011). For all these reasons and more, cyber slacking is certainly theft. It depends, however, on the proportion of time that is allotted to this theft and of manner of the sites browsed

Sources

NEGLIGENT HIRING (4/07) http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CGsQFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.judiciary.state.nj.us%2Fcivil%2Fcharges%2F5.76.doc&ei=W9U9UYjtFaTx2QWFu4DgCQ&usg=AFQjCNEBBj0GIaRqNwueeAC1eXXjKdevOg&sig2=Y_Y5IiPfEghisB8c9absIw&bvm=bv.43287494,d.b2I

Global Drug Policy. Employee Drug Testing Study. http://www.globaldrugpolicy.org/Issues/Vol%205%20Issue%204/Basic-11-22Efficacy%20Study%20Publication%20Final.pdf

Vitek, J. (2011) Personal Internet Use at Work: Understanding Cyberslacking Computers in Human Behavior http://www.academia.edu/507880/Personal_Internet_use_at_work_Understanding_cyberslacking