The difference between an employee and an independent contractor isn't an arbitrary choice that the company and worker can contract as they wish. If the de-fac

The difference between an employee and an independent contractor isn't an arbitrary choice that the company and worker can contract as they wish. If the de-facto nature of the interaction is that of an employee, then (mis)classifying that as a contractor relationship is generally illegal; the specifics depend on the jurisdiction (which is especially tricky if you have people in many jurisdictions) but it may be considered tax fraud because you're not reporting/paying taxes in the way employment requires, it may be considered violation of worker's right laws, etc. If you're treating your remote workers as independent contractors, then you have to treat them as independent contractors - i.e. they can sell their services also to other employers at the same time, they can set their own hours, they can choose how they achieve the goals and possibly (this may depend on location) subcontract their work instead of doing it themselves, etc.