Hiring a Housekeeper Can Mean a Mess of Red Tape

Question: I am planning to hire a housekeeper. Since she will be my employee, which various state and federal government agencies do I need to file with each quarter (e.g., workers’ compensation, state unemployment, Social Security, Internal Revenue Service)? Are there specific guidelines about pay and compensation? To whom do I write to obtain the necessary forms and is there a source of information to guide me through this process?

--M.R., La Habra Heights

Answer: You may be subject to comply with many regulations. Your obligations will be determined by the hiring practices. If you hire someone to work for only one day who meets the guidelines of “casual laborer” your obligations are significantly less than if the person is steadily employed.

Wages, overtime requirements, working hours and conditions also vary dependent whether the person is hired as a “non-live-in” or a “live-in status.”

If the housekeeper is regularly employed, other considerations would depend on the job responsibilities. Will they just have cleaning chores, or will they also do baby-sitting, or be a personal attendant? These answers may change your obligations as well.

Housekeepers who perform household chores are subject to withholding of both federal and state income taxes, Social Security (FICA), workers’ compensation insurance and unemployment insurance coverage. You will also be subject to completion of an “I-9” form under the Immigration Reform and Control Act. These are some of the requirements, but the full list is much longer. Whether you regularly employ one or more employees you will need to comply with at least these obligations.

To assist you with this seemingly overwhelming task, consider these resources: The State Employment Development Department has free information; employment agencies, which could establish the housekeeper as their employee, meet all the employer requirements and free you of the obligation; a certified public accountant or tax expert to help set up your record-keeping system, or a payroll accounting firm.

--Elizabeth Winfree-Lydon

Senior staff consultant

The Employers Group

*

Question: I teach in a private school. The children are required to wear uniforms and the teachers are told they may wear pants on Wednesdays only. Can they tell us we can wear pants only on Wednesday? We really want to wear pants more often, but we really want to keep our jobs too.

--M.C., Mission Viejo

Answer: It depends. I assume for the purposes of this question that you are all female teachers who normally are required to wear dresses or skirts to work. If the private school that you work for is not a religious school, and if you are not required to wear specific uniforms yourselves, a new state law effective Jan. 1 prohibits your employer from requiring you to wear dresses or skirts merely because you are females.

If you feel that your employer is violating this new law, you should first bring it up with your employer. If you do not receive a satisfactory answer, you should consult the Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The law protects you from retaliation for asserting your rights to your employer or contacting that agency.

--Michael A. Hood

Attorney, Paul, Hastings,

Janofsky & Walker

*

Question: Our company, which is using an increasing number of part-time employees, has required all workers to sign statements that go into our personnel files that indicate we have been made aware of some company policy or procedure. We are supposed to sign them whether or not we were personally involved in a situation where that particular policy was violated. These policies regard truly minor issues--inadvertent errors or omissions because of time constraints--and none of the issues have any legal ramifications to our employer nor affect its customer base.

Are employees legally required to sign these statements? Are we allowed to defend ourselves, in writing, before signing the statements and to point out that we personally followed correct procedures? If we dissent in any way about anything, we are told to put our badges on the desk and leave.

--A.R., Garden Grove

Answer: There is nothing wrong with an employer asking an employee to acknowledge that he or she has received information about a company policy or procedure, so long as the employee has actually received the information. An employee cannot be required to sign a false statement. Unless there is something more to it than what you have said, the mere signing of such a statement is not an admission of wrongdoing. Therefore, there would be no need to defend yourself.

However, if you really worry that someone might think otherwise, you should write a memo to your personnel director. Ask that it be put in your personnel file, and keep a copy for yourself.

--Calvin House, attorney

Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.

Adjunct professor, Western

State University College of Law

*

Question: I am a transferee registered nurse to an affiliate hospital-medical clinic of a large health maintenance organization. My hiring date, or job seniority, with this medical clinic is five years, but my total years of service to this HMO is 10 years.

Last September, the management announced a reduction in force. My clinic job as a pediatric nurse is on the line. Before the realignment, officers of my union, the United Nurses Assn. of California, promised me in front of witnesses that they would upgrade my seniority date to compensate for my 10 years of total service. By doing that, my job would no longer be in jeopardy and I wouldn’t have to bid for one of the remaining positions.

On the day of my job bidding, the union did not upgrade my seniority as promised. I was then forced to bid on the part-time job position or I will be out on the street.

I recently found out that two years ago there were job cuts among the hospital nurses and some were given credit for seniority to compensate for their years of service.

I feel betrayed by my union. Is it legal for the union to do this to me? Can I take legal action?

--L.C., Corona

Answer: Whenever a union is involved, the employee’s claim for breach of contract is against the union and not the employer. You have an employment contract through your union and the union has a contract with the employer. The union is your sole bargaining agent in regard to contractual matters.

You may have a claim for breach of contract. It appears that you can prove through your witnesses that the promise was made. You relied upon their promises by continuing to work up to the date of the reduction in force.

On the other hand, the union might argue that there is no “consideration” or bargain coming from your direction that makes it into a binding promise. They might argue that it was just their “intention” but not a contractual promise. Other factors may have influenced them to not fulfill the terms of their anticipated, but not definitely promised, actions.

You might be concerned about deadlines on your claim against the union. Some union contracts have extremely short periods in which you must make the claim, even as short as a matter of days. You should review your union contract to see what the rules are in that regard. Also check it to determine if there is any language that discusses seniority status.

It is interesting that they allow such changes of status in the past to other nurses. You should evaluate why they did it to them and not to you now. If the difference in treatment is in any way related to discrimination or retaliation against you because you complained about any illegalities, you might have additional claims against the union.

As a practical consideration, weigh the advantages of fighting your union and what you hope to gain against the disadvantages of them possibly black-listing you in the future. I have had many clients who have tried to win a small battle presently, but lose a bigger war later.

--Don D. Sessions

Employee rights attorney

Mission Viejo