We have our delivery drivers perform cleaning tasks at the end of the night, they end up staying about an extra hour or so after their last delivery. They sweep, empty trashes, mop etc., they continue to do a below average effort and want to leave asap, I know who doesn’t. I was thinking of hiring the drivers as 1099 Employees and just contracting them per delivery. They will be responsible for reporting their wages. My motivation here is protect on liability insurance, per hourly wages, freeing up payroll to hire correct employee for job etc
Has anyone done this?
Is it legal?
What am I missing?
I believe laws and regulations have been tightened up to make this “Independent contractor” practice nearly impossible to do legally. There used to be a discussion someplace here
I use contract drivers so here are a few thoughts on contract drivers.
[LIST]
[*]I do not make the schedule for the drivers they do it and give me a copy. I tell them what my needs are and they figure out who will be covering.
[]They only do deliveries and nothing else, no dishes, cleaning, folding boxes or answering phones.
[]They are free to do nothing, or even leave the shop if there are no deliveries.
[]They use their own vehicle so they must have commercial insurance for delivering pizza.
[]They need to have their own WCB insurance.
[*]They are typically paid on a per delivery basis either flat rate of percentage of the order total.
[/LIST]
I do not know how it works in Canada, but here in the USA no can do. You are exposing yourself to fines and interest expense from the IRS, Penalties etc from unemployment and footing the bill for injuries in a car accident not covered by work comp and having the 1099 status disallowed in a lawsuit. Think Quad in a wheelchair for life and you get the picture.
Someday one of these guys will claim unemployment or work comp or tell the IRS that you should have withheld taxes and challenge the contractor status… and you will loose.
To add to Daddio’s list of how he does it in Canada:
In the USA some of the most common “tests” for contractor status are:
They provide their own tools (hot bags for example)
They provide the contracted service to more than one client.
They set their own work schedule.
They negotiate or bid the rate they work for.
Seriously, if you are speaking with a company that provides this service for several restaurants either as a temp work supplier or outright contractor, fine. Otherwise forget it.