[Nubbin]

No sweat, as long as every employer gets the same break as the US Government. I work for the USDA and I don't have health care coverage. Here's how it works. You classify your employees as Temporary Workers and they are not entitled to retirement or insurance benefits. You renew their contract every year. At least half of USDA employees have worked 5, 10, 15, and even 20 years with USDA without insurance or retirement benefits.

[Nubbin]

Oh, and another benefit to the employer using "Temporary" workers is that he doesn't have to jump through hoops to get rid of an employee. You simply tell the employee you no longer need his services and send him home. A "Temp" is not entitled to an explanation for termination.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

No sweat, as long as every employer gets the same break as the US Government. I work for the USDA and I don't have health care coverage.

I understand our esteemed senators have a very nice health care plan.

[MarkL]

No sweat, as long as every employer gets the same break as the US Government. I work for the USDA and I don't have health care coverage. Here's how it works. You classify your employees as Temporary Workers and they are not entitled to retirement or insurance benefits. You renew their contract every year. At least half of USDA employees have worked 5, 10, 15, and even 20 years with USDA without insurance or retirement benefits.

Interesting... If a company in the private sector did that, they'd be eaten alive by the IRS. There's an entire industry that's sprung up that does nothing more than certify that a "contractor" complies with the IRS's definition of the term.

As a certified technical instructor, I was given the chance to teach a class for Novell, however, we had to go through this certification process that kept coming up with the "fact" that for the three days that I'd be teaching this class in VA (I work and live in MO),I was actually going to be an employee of Novell: The only problem was that Novell was contracting with MY EMPLOYER for me to teach the class! It took WEEKS to get the paper work straightened out, including my sending pay stubs and previous tax records, showing that I was a full time, salaried employee of the company that was being contracted to provide the training...

All of this due to the IRS crackdown on "independant contractors." And if you really want to see a big screw-up, check out what the IRS decision did to Microsoft.

I wonder if you could successfully sue for back pay and benefits, based on IRS case law given the Microsoft case?

Mark