The Cable Guys
Looks like Larry and the other cable guys aren’t going to take it any more.
Here we go again! An unsuspecting company, RCN must now pay the ultimate price for hiring misclassified workers; triple the damages in Massachusetts for wage and hour cases. To boot RCN must live with the bad publicity for years to come. RCN may already regret the hand shake with the third party shell company who supplied them the workers. The contractors showed up for work at in Massachusetts through a deal brokered between RCN and Pennsylvania based Custom Cable Concepts.
On June 2, 2009 a former cable installer filed suit against RCN Corp. claiming he was an employee and not an independent contractor. Fritz Ellenberg claims he is owed unpaid overtime, insurance coverage, and compensation for medical bills from an on-the-job-injury he sustained and reimbursement for out of pocket expenses for using his own vehicle and equipment. Fritz and more than 1,000 other U.S. installers are paid as “independent contractors” and recognize this arrangement has ripped them off for years. They claim they have been deprived of overtime and other employee benefits enjoyed by RCN employees. Many U.S. businesses are realizing great savings by illegally characterizing workers as independent contractors rather than employees, said Harold Lichten, Elienberg’s attorney.
Should Ellenberg and his fellow cable cronies win RCN will end shelling out millions! Fellow industry employers can thank these two for the knock at their door from the auditors. Oh and don’t forget about your worker lawsuits being filed as your reading this blog!
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. Currently neither company is functioning as Larry’s employer but that will change as this case unfolds. In the end one of them will be named as the employer. What we do know is the broker; Custom Cable Concepts also called a pass through or “shell company” in the staffing industry definitely knew the workers were paid as independent contractors and not as employees. However, RCN may not have been aware but will have an opportunity to tell its side of the story at some point. Regardless of whether RCN was aware of the compensation arrangement between Larry and Custom both companies bear equal responsibility and should share the burden of righting its wrong doings. The workers are the ones who come out on the short end and these companies have made billions of dollars off guys just like Larry. The practice of worker misclassification is not unique to this industry. In fact the problem is so severe in the United States that several pieces of legislation to put a stop this practice are currently in progress. Bottom line these two companies and Larry know exactly what the terms were for the job. I have a feeling it won’t be long now before the rest of us are in the know. I’ll keep you posted as this case heats up.