What todo regarding employment misclassification, wrongful termination and retaliation?

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What todo regarding employment misclassification, wrongful termination and retaliation?

I’ve been delivering tortillas for a company 6 days a week, month after month, for quite sometime; a position I have made my full-time income. As a solid driver, I was terminated abruptly with little reason and no explanation, saying they could just let me go

Asked on March 3, 2019 under Employment Labor Law, Texas

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 5 years ago | Contributor

You seem to be under a misunderstanding about termination: whether you were an employee or an independent contractor, you could be terminated at any time, for any reason (or even no reason other than that they want to terminate you) unless you had a written employment contract protecting or guarantying your employment. All employment in this nation is employment at will except when there is a written contract, so whether you were an employee or independent contractor is irrelevant: they could terminate you if they chose. Therefore, you were not wrongfully terminated.
Possibly they did mischaracterize you: some of the factors you describe would argue that you were an employee (e.g. that they conrolled your schedule and monitored your performance). However, other factors would support you being an independent contractor (e.g. driving your own vehicle and paying your own gas, tolls, and maintenance, while employees--what you call W2 employees--drove company vehicles). It is impossible to say, based on what you write, whether you were an employee or independent contractor, though you, as stated, at least raise some grounds to have been considered an employee. That being the case, you may wish to contact you state department of labor to inquire into filing a misclassification complaint; if the department agrees that you should have been considered an employee, you may be entitled to some of the additional pay, taxes paid on your behalf, or benefits that employess would get.


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