I worked for the City of Battle Creek from March 2003 to October 2007 as what the City called an Independant Contractor. I had several meetings with the City of Battle Creek Managers office and the Employee Relations Director regarding the issue of independant contractor vs. employee. There is a long paper trail in e-mails and I have most of them. I did contact the Michigan Dept. of Labor regarding this on January 06, 2007 and spoke with a Mr. Ken Keusch regarding my issues with the City. I also have e-mails from Michigan Department of Labor to me stating that they view me as an employee and not a contractor however there is nothing they can do. I even have an Email from the Federal Department of Labor that says there is nothing they can do. I did file for a determination with the IRS and they determined me to be an employee. Below is some of the information supporting employee status. I have the Emails and PDF document of the IRS ruling if anyone is interested. I read the ruling for the FedEx drivers and can't help but think those same rules applied to me as well.
I do meet every test out there for employee including the economic reality test, IRS 20 factor test and the FLSA information. I did bring this to the attention of the Employee Relations Director and the City Manager for the last three years and still nothing got done.
1. I have worked for the City of Battle Creek for over three years.
2. I am assigned regularly scheduled hours M – F 8am – 5pm
3. I am assigned a supervisor that works in the same office as outlined in my position description
4. I cannot work on other accounts because of the hours scheduled by the City
5. They dictate what work I do including controlling the final outcome
6. I was listed in the City Employee Directory
7. I was paid by the hour and turned in the weekly hourly statement and when I worked over 40 hours I got straight pay for that time.
8. What I did has been part of cormal City operations for many years including the City sending me to classes so that I can teach City staff how to run City equipment, I sent out bids for equipment, conducted City exercises.
9. I have discussed my concerns with both the City Manager and Assistant City Manager and was told that they do not view me as a contractor rather they view me as a contract employee and I have mentioned this statement in e-mails.
10. I have met with the Employee Relations Director and he stated the this was more of an employee relationship.
11. I was told that I was to no longer to approach City Hall regarding any issues that I needed to go through my supervisor and the Chief of Police.
12. I had City e-mail and a City phone with voicemail
13. My office was in the Police Building that I was to report to every day.
14. I was responsible to complete quarterly reports
Thank you for your time in this matter. Please let me know if you would like to receive additional materials.
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