The way we work in America is changing. The relationships between companies and their workers are more fluid and varied than in decades past. Our task in this appeal is to apply traditional legal protections to one such relationship.
So starts the 6th Circuit's opinion in Acosta v. Off Duty Police Servs., which applies the traditional "economic realities" test to determine whether private security and traffic control officers are employees or independent contractors.
One would think that with such a pronouncement at the head of the 6th Circuit's opinion, the court would be making a startling pronouncement broadening the landscape of who qualifies as an independent contractor. Those making that assumption, however, are sorely mistaken.