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I'm lucky too. Employer has let us work from home since the hurricane. 2 weeks already. We had to go in last Thursday but by Friday morning when they saw the gas line situation, they said everyone that can work remote do so.
Speaking of those gas line, I thought they would have been better by now. Was out at lunch time and they still are very long.
Hold on a minute. Please read the following links below. The term contractor is broad these days and often means "high paid temp". If you work through an agency you are likely not an independent contractor. If someone works at company A, but their paycheck comes from someone else your employment agreement is with the company who gives you the check. So if company A tells you not to come in and won't let you work at home and you work through an agency you are likely out of luck.
"Contract workers told they could not work from home as they would be unsupervised and therefore essentially without income while businesses are closed."
Read this and would like to offer some helpful guidance to those of you in the situation described above. The IRS has a very strict definition of whether an individual is an employee or an independent contractor for the purposes of employment taxes such as FICA, social security, unemployment, etc, and one of the criteria is whether the employer can exercise control over individual's work. It does not matter that you have a contract stating you work on a consulting basis. The company I work got sued by a former consultant who claimed that because he was "supervised", he should be treated as an employee, and thus eligible for unemployment. We tried to fight it off to no avail, at the end, the guy was able to get the benefits, we had to pay back-up FICA and attorney fees.
My point is-if you are a contractor, kindly let your employer know that they can land in hot water if they refuse you to work from home.
As to the above topic, my company allowed to work from home to those who had power, those who did not have power and could not get to the city did not have to use their vacation days and those in key positions like mine were offered car service to/from home until LIRR went back up.
I agree, these situations bring the best and the worst in people and I consider myself lucky-not just my employer did right by me, but my friends in Brooklyn who never lost power were calling me every hour before and after Sandy to evacuate to their home.
Job closed for 2 days but without power or gas i was unable to get in for a week. Being paid for 40 hours and not taking any vaca or any other leave. Wonderful company. I love them.
Also lucky to work for a large company that treats employees well. The company closed last Monday and Tuesday (NY/NJ offices), not charging employees for it, but opened the NY and CT offices on Wed. Employees who were unable to travel into work on Wed will not get charged for the day nor be forced to use it as a personal/vacation day. Those who did come in on Wed, will get 4 hours of comp time (1/2 day vacation/personal day). The CEO also has provided free breakfast and lunch to workers in the Claims Department last week and this week. We heard through the grapevine that all workers affected by Sandy may be eligible for housing assistance (a few of employees lived in Long Beach or the south shore were homes were washed away or labelled uninhabitable) and extra vacation days. They have also set up a fuel truck in the parking lot to help employees who are stranded at work because of the fuel shortage problem we are having (the employee's car must be at 1/4 tank level or less and the limit is 6 gallons).
All in all, it has been great, my only complaint is one of the Partners at my firm who kept sending me text messages on Thurs and Friday asking me "you sure you will be at work by 9 am?" To "just a reminder that the office is open today". But then again, his management style is similar to Mr. Lumberg, the boss from that movie, " Office Space."..
Last edited by LegalDiva; 11-08-2012 at 10:31 PM..
Lost a week's pay during the storm. I work for a small business with the president/CEO and about 10 employees. Office had no power until Saturday, so the business was closed. Got paid for the three hours I worked on Monday before the storm arrived, and that's it.
Thank you for all of the responses. I'll PM some of you but if possible can you PM me contact information?
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