You Decide Week 1
Date: 3 November 2013
Your Role/Assignment:
Your role is to decide if Karen is an independent contractor or an employee and discuss some of the preventative and ethical situations that are occurring in this case.
Questions:
1. Do you feel that Karen is an independent contractor or an employee? What is your rationale
for this decision?
It is my belief because Karen was not hired as a permanent employee initially, but over time she has become a stable and permanent employee for the company. She has been working for the company for five years and started out as a contractor for training development for the HR diversity program and is given a salary for the position and the duties that she has been working, and even though she was never officially hired on as a permanent employee for the company she has been working in an official capacity. She was never given company benefits that the permanent employees receive but now she wants benefits from the company because of the detailed work she has provided for the five years she has provided a service to the company. So even though there has been no paperwork initiated or signed staying that she is a permanent employee she has been working as one and should be considered so.
2. What factors do you feel help contribute to Karen being an employee?
The most important factor is she has the word temporary removed from her job title and was assigned as the Human Resources Consultant. This makes her position and permanent fixture and asset of the company. You can’t be given an official title for the company and then be considered an independent contractor. Karen worked on a $10,00 salary per month and had a very healthy and satisfying relationship with the company and especially her bosses. The HR manager looked upon her as a solid employee and portrayed this to the work force, and the biggest and most telling fact is she worked for the company for five years and was not...