My colleague Jang Hyuk Im, a Member in the firm’s San Francisco office, authored an article in Law360 titled “Steps for Avoiding Unexpected Joint Employer Liability.” (Read the full version – subscription required.). I thought you might find Jang’s article of interest particularly given recent media coverage about the outsourcing of domestic IT jobs and legal challenges facing employers.
Following is an excerpt:
The long-term expense and economic effects of maintaining a full-time workforce, including the added costs of health insurance, payroll taxes, social security, and overtime, force many employers to use contracting services to support their information technology, operational and administrative needs.
This has led to the loss of many domestic jobs and the outsourcing of much of the IT and other work they performed. Combined with the fact that these U.S. workers are being replaced by foreign workers employed by contractors who are leading high-tech firms, these decisions have generated a ripple effect of substantial adverse publicity along with both public and private litigation — as government agencies pay closer attention to the legalities of these arrangements in the immigration arena. The potential for immigration-based legal and public relations disasters can be great requiring employers to manage these contracted service relationships carefully.