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There is "Unemployment Insurance" in America, and companies have to pay into it for their employees by law. Any employee who no-fault loses their job can draw f
by criley2 8y ago
There is "Unemployment Insurance" in America, and companies have to pay into it for their employees by law. Any employee who no-fault loses their job can draw from it.
This company used a "cheat" in the legal system in America for labor where they illegally labeled their employees as "independent contractors", which are treated differently under the law. These contractors aren't "employees" and aren't eligible for unemployment (because they were not 'employed', they were contracted).
For example if you were to hire someone to work on your kitchen for 1 week, you wouldn't pay unemployment insurance on their behalf. If they were self-employed doing remodeling/contracting, they would be expected to pay their own unemployment insurance.
It is unfortunate how the illegal abuse of "independent contracting" in America has created these terrible situations though.
- duxup 8y agoThe employees had to have known they were contractors though.... at least in my expense that is no mystery.
- nkrisc 8y agoWell then you have to choose between turning down the job for the chance you'll need unemployment insurance or taking the job because you need a job. The rational choice is to take the job regardless.
- duxup 8y agoDepends on your options. The game industry seems pretty terrible to their workers. Either way the employees had to know.
- sleepybrett 8y agoThis kind of 'be a contractor or gtfo' thing is not in any way limited to the games industry.
- s73v3r_ 8y agoSure, but that doesn't change anything.
- baq 8y agothis is also a thing in europe, with similar consequences.
- tremon 8y agoDepends on the country. In NL, the legal requirements for independent contractors are quite strict. As an independent contractor, you must: - have multiple sources of income/contracts (at least 3, and no single contract may be worth more than 70% of your total income) - have complete control over how to do your job (i.e. the hiring party can only tell you what to do, not how or when to do it) - actively promote your own company (acquisition, marketing efforts) - invest in your own company: your tools (laptop, software licenses) must be your own (they are tax-deductible) - have your own liability insurance. If you fail any of these conditions, the tax auditor may classify you as an employee regardless of what the contract says, and both you and your employer may be fined (depending on whether they see you as a victim or an accomplice).
- skrebbel 8y agoIs this still true? Didn't that "model contract" mess replace all of this by, well, nothing really?
- criley2 8y agoThis is nearly all true in America too (not sure about a 3 source/70% rule) but in order to get around it, the conservatives have massively underfunded the tax organization / auditors to the point where they basically cannot even competently audit the criminals, so the average businesses are un-audited by default.
- ppseafield 8y agoNot always, at least here in Oregon I received unemployment after being let go from a contractor job. The state tax department had to rule whether or not my contracting work qualified though. They used a couple of factors: whether or not I had set times to be at the office, whether I had to be at the office, how many hours I worked, if they gave me hardware for working there - basically if they were "cheating" as you said.