Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County

Misclassification of employees as independent contractors is a serious problem for many workers. As a result, they are deprived unlawfully of overtime and minimum wages as well as benefits. Under the “ABC Test” established by the California Supreme Court in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. The Superior Court of Los Angeles County, a worker is an employee if any of the following conditions are met:

(A) The hiring entity controls or directs the performance of the worker;

(B) The worker performs work associated with the hiring entity’s business (like a driver who drives for a trucking company or a programmer who codes for a software company, not a plumber whose work is entirely unrelated to the hiring entity’s business); or

(C) The worker is not customarily engaged in an independently established business.

Each of these factors is presumed to be true. This means that a worker is presumed to be an employee, and the hiring entity has the burden of proving otherwise.