Here at the Law Office of Vincent Miletti, Esq. and the home of the #UnusuallyMotivated movement, we take pride as a resilient and dependable legal services firm, providing such services in both a traditional and online, web-based environment. With mastered specialization in areas such as Employment and Labor Law, Intellectual Property (IP) (trademark, copyright, patent), Entertainment Law, and e-Commerce (Supply Chain, Distribution, Fulfillment, Standard Legal & Regulatory), we provide a range of legal services including, but not limited to traditional legal representation (litigation, mediation, arbitration, opinion letters, and advisory), non-litigated business legal representation and legal counsel, and unique, online legal services such as smart forms, mobile training, legal marketing, and development.

Still, here at Miletti Law®, we feel obligated to enlighten, educate, and create awareness, free of charge, about how these issues and many others affect our unusually motivated® readers and/or their businesses. Accordingly, to achieve this goal, we have committed ourselves to creating authoritative, trustworthy, & distinctive content. Usually, this content is featured as videos posted on our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtvUryqkkMAJLwrLu2BBt6w and blogs that are published on our website WWW.MILETTILAW.COM. With that, the ball is in your court and you have an effortless obligation to subscribe to the channel and sign up for the Newsletter on the website, which encompasses the best way to ensure that you stay in the loop and feel the positive impact of the knowledge bombs that we drop here!

As the authoritative force in Employment Law, it only seemed right to introduce one of the many upcoming series in which we introduce a variety of topics that looks to educate and deliver in a manner that only Miletti Law® can. To that end, this blog is Part IX of our ongoing series on “Life Sciences Industry Guide for Labor and Employment,” in which we review the basics and have an overview of what is encompassed as part of the life sciences industry. In Part VIII of the series and our blog titled “Damages Available to Plaintiffs in FLSA Misclassification Claims,” we mentioned that employers within the life sciences industry must understand that misclassifying employees as exempt could lead to significant financial risks. Pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 216(b), some of the monetary damages available to prevailing plaintiffs include attorney’s fees and costs, liquidated damages that should amount to unpaid overtime, and unpaid overtime wages. Additionally, we added that pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 255(a) of the FLSA, some of the damages recoverable for at least twenty-four months since the date the claim was brought and available to prevailing plaintiffs include liquidated damages and unpaid overtime.

As a continuation of our discussion, this blog is titled “Independent Contractor Concerns within the Life Sciences Industry” and is an overview of some of the concerns independent contractors have when working and engaged with the life sciences industry.

Independent Contractor Concerns within the Life Sciences Industry

Employers within the life sciences industry engage in the common practice of using independent contractors as a way of supplementing the workforce. For instance, contract workers are known to be highly involved in clinical studies, medical research, and development within the biopharmaceutical arena.

Employers must understand that in order to avoid typical pitfalls, they must determine whether a worker is working as an independent contractor or as an employee. Making such a determination is critical because, for example, unlike workers working as employees, it is the responsibility of independent contractors to undertake their own tax reporting and withholding, but they do not always do so. Another thing to note is that independent contractors are not essentially entitled to analogous protections provided under state law (e.g., workers’, disability, and unemployment compensation protections) and the lot of benefits enjoyed by employees pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq. and subject to ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974).

In this regard, employers within the life sciences industry should be aware that the designation of workers as independent contractors is often scrutinized and evaluated by the Department of Labor (DOL), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and a number of state regulators. Usually, when assessing whether workers are sufficiently subject to the control and direction of an employer (such that they would be qualified to enjoy the protections and benefits entitled to employees) or whether the economic reality is such that they are truly independent, state regulators and federal agencies have to consider a myriad of factors.

Accordingly, employers must be aware that in order to determine whether a worker is an independent contractor or not, state regulators and federal agencies look into factors that include, but are not limited to:

  • The degree of independent business operation and organization
  • The measure of foresight, judgment, or initiative in open market competition with others required such that the alleged independent contractor would succeed
  • The opportunities for loss and profit for the alleged contractor
  • The extent and nature of direction and control by the principal
  • The amount of equipment and facility investment of the alleged contractor
  • The relationship’s permanency-and-
  • The degree to which the services rendered are an integral portion of the principal’s business.

In Part X of this series and our blog titled “Trainee, Volunteer, & Intern Concerns within the Life Sciences,” we shall move the discussion forward by hammering on the concerns employers should have when trainees, volunteers, and interns are engaged in the business activities of life sciences industry.

In the meantime, stay tuned for more legal guidance, training, and education. In the interim, if there are any questions or comments, please let us know at the Contact Us page!

Always rising above the bar,

Isaac T.,

Legal Writer & Author.