Executive Summary: On July 22, 2019,
the Ninth Circuit withdrew its recent decision applying the
landmark employee/independent contractor classification case,
Dynamex, retroactively and indicated that it will be
certifying the question to the California Supreme Court.
On April 30, 2018, the California Supreme Court issued its
decision in Dynamex Operations West, LLC v. Superior Court of
California, which established the "ABC test" for
determining who qualifies as an independent contractor under
California's Wage Orders. Generally, this ABC test makes it
more difficult to classify workers as independent contractors,
opening employers to exposure for employee benefits that would not
otherwise be owed to independent contractors. For a discussion of
Dynamex, see the May 3, 2018 Alert authored by Ross
Boughton and Alexandria Witte, available
here.
