Accidents on a Business Premises
Accidents that occur in business premises as a result of the management’s carelessness make the business liable for the injury caused. A business is required to compensate any person who suffers injury in the business premises if the management did not take reasonable care to ensure safety. The law only requires the management to take reasonable measures to ensure safety. Therefore, the business cannot be held responsible for the accidents if the management takes reasonable care to guarantee safety.
An example case of negligence involved the employees of a company called Costco. The workers failed to wipe up liquid soap that had spilled on the floor. The spill caused a ‘slip and fall’ accident for a customer. The jury, in this case, held Costco liable because it had a chance to take necessary measures to avoid the accident. In another case involving the same company in California, the company was not held liable for the fall of a woman who slipped on food that had dropped on the floor. Costco employees had taken the necessary steps to avoid any accident by conducting hourly floor inspections (Ursin, 2013). In the instance case, Green Grocers Inc. had taken the necessary steps to ensure safety. The banana peel was fresh, indicating that it had just been dropped. Therefore, the company could not be assumed to have been negligent, as there was no proof that the workers had failed to remove the peel intentionally. Moreover, the victim was wearing high heels, meaning that there was a chance that the heels contributed to the accident.
In this scenario, mediation would be the most effective alternative dispute resolution mechanism to come up with a common solution. The first step would involve finding a common ground on which both parties would be satisfied. This would save them the expenses incurred in litigation. The parties would discuss the circumstances of the case and form an agreement, whose terms they would agree to. Each of the parties would be represented by lawyers. Mediation is usually the middle ground between informal settlement and a formal lawsuit (Meiners, Ringleb, & Edwards, 2014). The parties would settle on a specific amount to be paid without having to go to court. They would find a neutral party to preside over the case. This neutral party would hear both sides of the case and ensure that there are no misleading facts are adduced for use in this process. The decision made must be satisfactory to both parties. Therefore, the neutral party would ensure there is no bias (Goldman & Sigismond, 2013).
Whether a Service Provider is an Independent Contractor or an Employee
It is important for a business, whether big or small, to clearly define the relationship between itself and the people who provide it with services. Therefore, a business should distinguish between its employees and independent contractors. Failure to establish the relationship can cost the business unnecessary expenses.
The main test used in common law to determine whether a service provider is an employee is the degree of control the business has over the provider. A business does not have absolute control over an independent contractor, but it only requests a task be done and the independent contractor performs as they see fit. Control over the independent contractor can be determined by the amount of control a business has over the contractor regarding the duration of working hours, who supplies the equipment, and the freedom to resign. Therefore, a person is an independent contractor if they decide the number of hours they work for the business (Barrientos, 2013). A worker is an independent contractor if they have the freedom to decide whether or not to go to work and the business has no right to take action against them for such a decision. An independent contractor supplies their own equipment and materials. They work for the business temporarily. In addition, they may have another source of income; thus, an independent contractor does not wholly depend on the income from the business (Volokh, 2012).
Ms. Greene works for the Good Grocers, Inc. during specified days of the week, for a specific time. She owns her own and business and uses her own equipment. This qualifies her as an independent contractor. She is not a permanent employee, which shows that the business does not have absolute control over her. The amount she is paid is not constant because it usually depends on the number of cakes that she works on. She does not have any contract with the business to grant her right to any reimbursements, such as a pension or any other benefits given to common employees.
In the present scenario, Ms. Greece worked for eight hours on two consecutive days and was paid per hour, instead of the usual pay per cake. This showed some degree of control of the business over her because the pay for that weekend was constant. It nullified the usual contract because she worked for hours, but she was paid a constant amount that was outside the terms of the contract. The circumstances of the weekend could qualify her to be a part time employee. Based on the new circumstances, Ms. Greene has a claim and should be awarded benefits like any other employee. She has a basis for claiming to be treated as a part time employee, given that the company subjected her to the same working conditions as those of regular employees.
References
Barrientos, S. W. (2013). ‘Labour chains’: Analysing the role of labour contractors in global production networks. The Journal of Development Studies, 49(8), 1058-1071.
Goldman, A., & Sigismond, W. D. (2013). Business law: Principles and practices. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Meiners, R. E., Ringleb, A. H., & Edwards, F. (2014). The legal environment of business. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Ursin, E. (2013). Holmes, Cardozo, and the legal realists: Early incarnations of legal pragmatism and enterprise liability. San Diego Law Review, 50, 14-144.
Volokh, A. (2012). Privatization and the elusive employee-contractor distinction. UC Davis Law Review, 46(1), 133-208.