Nonprofit Guidelines: Contractor vs. Employee
The California Supreme Court has dramatically clarified and narrowed the definition of independent contractors. Under the new guidelines, all workers in an organization are employees unless they meet the following criteria:
The worker is free from the control and direction of the hirer in connection with work performance
The worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the organization’s business
The worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade or business of the same nature as the work being performed.
These new guidelines have proved challenging for many nonprofits. When Caesura Youth Orchestra and Rose City Counseling Center decided to seek legal counsel on the guidelines, Jericho Road Pasadena was able to pair them with a skilled volunteer to assist them with their Legal Consultation Project.
The Caesura Youth Orchestra (CYO) is a nonprofit organization that assists youth facing socioeconomic disadvantages by providing them with a positive space in which they can experience music and community. CYO provides free musical instruments and music instruction to underserved students in Glendale, CA. Free instruction is provided by professional musicians from various orchestras in the Los Angeles area. Students perform regularly at local schools, churches, and community events.
“Music has to be recognized as an…agent of social development in the highest sense, because it transmits the highest values — solidarity, harmony, mutual compassion. And it has the ability to unite an entire community and to express sublime feelings.”
— José Antonio Abreu
Rose City Counseling Center is a nonprofit organization that provides high-quality, low-fee psychotherapy on a sliding scale to the San Gabriel Valley.
JRP volunteer, Christina Howard worked to provide CYO and RCCC with updated information on classifying staff/contractors as well as documentations needed to hire/fire employees. Howard provided both organizations with employees policies and procedures in the form of an employee manual.
The community will benefit from both organizations continued ability to legally hire and train quality employees.