Pyle Rome Partner Urges Court to Classify Real Estate Agents as Employees

Pyle Rome partner Ian Russell recently filed an amicus brief in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court supporting a group of real estate agents who have claimed that they lost wages as a result of their improper classification as independent contractors rather than as employees. The amicus brief, which was filed on behalf of the Massachusetts Employment Lawyers Association and the Massachusetts Building Trades Council, AFL-CIO, argues for the reversal of the Superior Court decision in Monell v. Boston Pads, LLC, which exempted workers in the real estate industry from coverage under the state Independent Contractor Statute.

As Attorney Russell noted when he was interviewed for a recent article about the case in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly (attached to this post), there is no indication that the Legislature intended to exclude the real estate industry from coverage under the Independent Contractor Statute or the Wage Act. In fact, the only time that an attempt was made to explicitly exempt real estate agents from coverage under the Independent Contractor Statute, the proposed legislation did not become law. As explained in the amicus brief, narrowing the scope of the Independent Contractor Statute to exclude any categories of workers where there is no explicit statutory exemption would set a dangerous precedent.