For four years hughes amero delivered fuel for Townsend Oil of Danvers, Mass. He owned the truck and was paid as an independent contractor for each gallon delivered. In 2005 Amero fell from a refueling platform. When Townsend wouldn't pay his medical costs and later terminated his contract, Amero sued. In December a Massachusetts Superior Court judge ruled that Amero was Townsend's employee, entitled to overtime and other benefits. "This is the way we had done business for years," says Townsend attorney Kurt Fliegauf, who plans to appeal. More than 10 million workers are classified as independent contractors-they don't get company-paid benefits such as health insurance, overtime, family leave, protection from discrimination laws or unemployment when work dries up. But a crackdown is already under way in the states and, with Democrats in control, likely to come from the federal government this year. Since 2007 Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Washington have passed laws or set up task forces to force companies to put more of these workers on their payrolls as employees.
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