Tough Reality

After being fired as the dance program director for the Crenshaw YMCA, a stunned Anna Maria Sistare-Meyer surmised that the black-run facility dismissed her because she is white.

But when Sistare-Meyer sued, alleging racial discrimination, she got nowhere. Both a trial court and, earlier this month, the California Court of Appeal tossed out her case. The reason: Sistare-Meyer was an independent contractor to the YMCA, not a regular employee, and thus was not protected by state laws prohibiting discrimination in the workplace.

That ruling underscored a tough reality for millions of Americans who work as independent contractors. Even in California, where civil rights and employment law protections are broader than they are across the rest of the country, independent contractors often have second-class status on the job.

For starters, it is difficult, if not impossible, for them to sue for such abuses as wrongful dismissal or age, sex and race discrimination. Independent contractors also rarely receive the workers’ compensation, holidays, overtime pay or other benefits that ordinary employees get.

In fact, some lawyers say that the rights of independent contractors have been limited for so long that the latest ruling in the Sistare-Meyer case--even if it survives an expected appeal to the California Supreme Court--won’t make matters substantially worse for these freelance workers.

At the same time, experts say, independent contractors who have been wronged still have legal remedies. The decision “does not give a free rein to employers to just outright discriminate against independent contractors,” said Larry J. Shapiro, publisher of the California Employer Advisor legal newsletter.

For one thing, independent contractors can sue under California’s Unruh Act, which outlaws discrimination by all “business establishments,” not just by employers.

Many plaintiffs lawyers can also sue for discrimination and other improper practices by asserting that workers classified as independent contractors by their bosses are, in fact, regular employees. In an ongoing legal battle over employee benefits, Microsoft Corp. has acknowledged misclassifying some workers as independent contractors between 1987 and 1990.

Times Mirror Co., whose flagship publication is the Los Angeles Times, said it is finalizing a settlement with the Internal Revenue Service stemming from the company’s misclassification of some newspaper writers and photographers as independent contractors.

When workers set their own hours, use their own equipment and decide for themselves how to handle a job, they tend to be considered independent contractors under the law. But less autonomous workers subject to the close control of an employer normally are regarded as employees.

Sistare-Meyer doesn’t dispute that she genuinely was an independent contractor. And she doesn’t think the use of independent contractors is inherently bad. As the YMCA’s dance director for two years, Sistare-Meyer herself hired independent contractor instructors to teach classes; she says she liked the arrangement because it meant less paperwork and fewer responsibilities.

Sistare-Meyer said her problems with the YMCA’s management began when she complained that her freelancers were called “Uncle Tommette” and otherwise taunted by YMCA employees because they worked for someone who was white. The YMCA denies any discrimination and says that Sistare-Meyer was dismissed, without ever being replaced, because of a budget shortfall.

After deciding to sue, Sistare-Meyer said she was shocked when she found out about the limited legal rights of independent contractors.

“I thought I was covered under the Constitution of the United States,” she said.

Sistare-Meyer now advises others to be cautious when entering into independent contractor agreements.

“If you feel there could be a problem at any time, don’t do it, because you’re not covered” by many of the laws protecting employees, she said.

Times staff writer Stuart Silverstein can be reached by phone at (213) 237-7887 or by e-mail at [email protected]