I concur. Some companies (look at ridesharing) have been fast and loose with these rules. Others go stricter towards both the spirit and letter of the law. And

I concur. Some companies (look at ridesharing) have been fast and loose with these rules. Others go stricter towards both the spirit and letter of the law. And may times companies go through agencies (and Upwork) to avoid converting people. This isn’t a commentary of the justness of the laws - just that they exist. (The urban legend is they were founded over a MSFT janitor losing out on an IPO windfall.) In this case, I suspect the client is aware of the constraints which is why they insist on having a middleman. There are two sides to the morality of this, but I’m not sure Upwork is guilty of anything other than crappy communication. (All staffing agencies profit on the conversion)