André in ‘Law360’ on Calif. High Court’s Worker Status Ruling

Los Angeles Partner Jean-Claude (J.C.) André was quoted Jan. 19 by Law360 concerning the California Supreme Court’s recent in ruling in Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising, holding that the court’s earlier ruling in Dynamex – which made it harder for employers to classify workers as independent contractors – is retroactive. Law360 polled a number of California labor and employment attorneys on what Jan-Pro could mean going forward. André, co-chair of BCLP’s Appellate & Supreme Court Group, said “Retroactivity comes in a lot of different flavors…. You could have maximal retroactivity, where you open the floodgates, saying our rule will apply to any potential case under the sun, whether it’s alive in the court or had already been decided. That’s not what the court said – that would be disastrous. This is just, ‘OK, we’re interpreting the statute. Any case that’s not time-barred or the case is pending, Dynamex applies.’ I don’t think there's anything really big here. It’s going to be uncomfortable for these businesses that are in the narrow window that weren’t expecting this, but there’s no real ‘open the floodgates’ problem. That was already here with A.B.5 and the initial ruling.”