PHARMACEUTICALS COURIERS WERE EMPLOYEES.

The Third Department determined couriers for a pharmaceuticals warehouse (SDS) were employees entitled to unemployment insurance benefits:

Here, SDS advertised for couriers and screened interested parties. Couriers are assigned routes by SDS, set up geographically by SDS’s clients, worked an agreed upon set weekly schedule at a pay rate negotiated between the couriers and SDS and were required to either pick the pharmaceuticals up at an SDS warehouse or at the SDS client’s location. SDS would have an on-site coordinator present when pickups were made at the client’s location. Couriers were provided a daily manifest bearing SDS’s name that identifies the stops for their routes. Couriers were required to obtain proof of delivery signatures on the manifests and return a copy of them to SDS. Couriers also provided invoices to SDS in order to get paid and SDS would bill its clients, and couriers were paid whether or not SDS was paid by its clients … . Couriers were required to wear SDS uniforms and were provided badges identifying themselves as being contracted through SDS. SDS also provided scanners to couriers to be used in order to electronically track their pickups and deliveries. Matter of Gill (Strategic Delivery Solutions LLC–Commissioner of Labor), 2015 NY Slip Op 09576, 3rd Dept 12-24-15

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE (PHARMACEUTICALS COURIERS WERE EMPLOYEES)