The California legislature did not act this year to delay or change the Supreme Court decision in Dynamex, which laid out three criteria for a worker to be considered an independent contractor and not an employee. This decision makes it virtually impossible for most businesses to continue to classify workers as independent contractors.

This will likely be seen in Workers Compensation audits as current policies expire. Auditors and underwriters will be seeking to include money paid to independent contractors as payroll unless the insured employer can prove these workers meet the three requirements of the court decision.

The Supreme Court determined that to qualify as an Independent Contractor the employer must prove all of the following:
That the worker is free from the control & direction of the hirer in the performance of the work; and
That the worker performs work outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and
That the worker is customarily engaged in an independently-established trade, occupation or business of the same nature as the work being performed for the hiring entity.

If you have a lot of workers classified as Independent Contractors, you could be facing large additional premiums on your current and expiring policies as auditors will be applying these criteria.

A lot of companies are trying to sell them online for over $50.00 a sign, but Safety Compliance Institute is giving them away for free. Please follow this link for your FREE Updated Prop 65 Poster.

(OC Register) Until the first steam locomotives were invented in the early 19th Century, man could travel as far as he could walk or as far as his horse would take him. Life was dirty, smelly, difficult – and short. Life expectancy was short and human misery was assured. There was virtually no military and the only available weapons were the bow and arrow, swords, the single-shot Muscat rifle.

In the decades and centuries after 1900, after the discovery of oil, and the inventions of the automobile and the airplane, we now have a huge military of aircraft, ships, and artillery, an airline industry that can take us anywhere in the world consuming 225 million gallons of aviation fuels EVERY DAY to move almost 10 million passengers and other things EVERY DAY, a cruise line industry that takes us to all parts of the world consuming 30 to 50 gallons of fuel for EVERY MILE, a leisure industry of hotels, resorts, theme parks, and a transportation industry of rail, trucks and automobiles that can deliver products from around the world and take us to virtually any destination. We also have an electronic and aerospace industry that has everyone wired and wireless, and elaborate infrastructures to support the growing populations. Continue reading