Firing employee and he is asked for wages for contract employee he hired

[Jmai1986]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas and California

I was wondering if it was justify for my company to pay expenses of contract work for sales models that was hired by a contract employee of ours. The employee works in California, our company is based in Texas, their were events he attended where he hired 3 girls to go with him. Officially our company never seen the girls nor wrote off that they would represent our company. Legally do we have to pay the expenses since we never officially interview, hired and had signed application from those girls? Thank you

 

[Just Blue]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas and California

We will need more information. Please edit the ^ post without using the preview function. Thanks, Blue.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas and California

I was wondering if it was justify for my company to pay expenses of contract work for sales models that was hired by a contract employee of ours. The employee works in California, our company is based in Texas, their were events he attended where he hired 3 girls to go with him. Officially our company never seen the girls nor wrote off that they would represent our company. Legally do we have to pay the expenses since we never officially interview, hired and had signed application from those girls? Thank you

There is no such thing as a contract employee. There are independent contractors and there are employees. If you have misclassified an employee as an independent contractor then you have bigger problems than this particular dispute.

Whether or not you should pay for the models depends on a thorough read of your contract with the person in question.

 

[eerelations]

Is this "contract employee" an independent contractor (paid via AP) or an employee (paid via payroll)?

 

[Just Blue]

Is this "contract employee" an independent contractor (paid via AP) or an employee (paid via payroll)?

I agree. Though it seems English may not be OP primary language.

 

[justalayman]

If an IC, if your contract with him allowed him to engage employees and your company be liable for their wages tell him to take a hike. You would owe the money directly to the employees of at all. Whether he had the authority to engage employees on your payroll is based on your contract with him.

If he was an employee tell him to take a hike since even if he was allowed to engage others as employees of your company your company would be liable to the employees directly.


The only other possibility I can think of is if as part of your contract with him your company is liable for certain expenses he incurs. If your company is liable to him for an expense such as this is would not be wages but simply money owed to him per the contrect. Whether your comlmany is liable to him for such expenses will be determined by the terms of your contract with him.

 

[Jmai1986]

Apologize for any misunderstand

Thank you for some of you helping me try to understand the legal matter involve in this. As for a worker who deals with numbers only, my vocab in legal aspect might not be as well and could be misunderstood. Here is a summary of how this matter came up. In the past 2 months we verbally applied a sales rep out in California to help our business grow out in that region, in the past week we had him fired due to the expense he spent does not justify what we recieved in return. During his time working, he went to a event and hired 3 models and paid all the expenses plus wages out of his pocket and had them signed a piece of paper with only their name to clarify they did work. Our company never met the girls, or officially hired/interview them and have no legal documents of applications or 1099/w-4. For all we know, he could have used fake names and taken the money for himself. Our question is are we obligated to pay the wages for those girls and if not, is it legally going to come back to haunt us. Thank you and I apoligize for any misunderstanding.

 

[Jmai1986]

Attachment to previous message

Paying for those wages mean reimbursing the sales rep what he paided out of his pocket for those girls.

 

[justalayman]

I can copy and paste my previous post if you like.

But let's try this;

Was he an employee or an independent contractor?

 

[cbg]

If he were in any other state I'd tell you to tell him to pound sand. Given that it's California, where you are legally obligated to repay an employee for certain expenses, I think this is really beyond the scope of a message board; it has the potential to get very messy. I strongly recommend that you contact an attorney for this one.

 

[Zigner]

If he were in any other state I'd tell you to tell him to pound sand. Given that it's California, where you are legally obligated to repay an employee for certain expenses, I think this is really beyond the scope of a message board; it has the potential to get very messy. I strongly recommend that you contact an attorney for this one.

I agree with what you said for an employee. I think it's much more likely that the sales rep would be considered an independent contractor. As such, this is a contract law matter, not an employment law matter.

 

[cbg]

Not debating that point, but all the more reason the OP needs to get it clarified for certain sure which he is.

Once he is absolutely certain he's an IC, THEN he can tell the guy to pound sand. But under the circumstances I'd want more than the collective opinion of a message board to determine that.