This Law Firm Publication by Stoel Rives LLP discusses two recent decisions by the Ninth Circuit regarding the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. In both Alexander v. FedEx, originating in California and Slayman v. FedEx, originating in Oregon, the Ninth Circuit held that FedEx drivers were employees and that certain terms of the company's operating agreements, which appeared to describe the drivers as independent contractors, did not actually make them independent contractors. The court noted, in both opinions, that neither state's law views a contract's description of a worker's classification status as dispositive of the worker's actual status. The court held that FedEx exercised a great deal of control over the drivers' job performance, including their appearance, the times that they worked and how they delivered packages. This degree of company control made the drivers employees rather than independent contractors.