Manesh Rath and Taylor Johnson Quoted in Inside OSHA Article on ALJ Underscoring Employee Test Burden for OSHA

Keller and Heckman Partner Manesh Rath and Associate Taylor Johnson were quoted in the Inside OSHA article, “ALJ Underscores ‘Employee’ Test Burden For OSHA, Scrapping Citation.” The article is centered around Keller and Heckman’s November 16, 2022, OSHA 30/30 webinar, where Manesh and Taylor discussed the unusual nature of the decision in Secretary of Labor v. Nemeckay’s Roofing and Home Improvement Company. Manesh pointed out that the administrative law judge (ALJ) held that the company’s sole owner gave “false and incomplete” answers to both the commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) on fundamental questions including whether he was paying the workers. Manesh went on to explain how this result underscores the need for both OSHA and employers to “memorialize” employment relationships in writing. Manesh and Taylor concluded the webinar by describing the importance of a pending proposal by the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division to scrap a rule for identifying independent contractors, based on an “economic reality” test tied to a company’s control over a worker’s activities, and the potential for a manager to impact profit or loss from the work.

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