A. An individual who has not been properly classified as an employee may bring a civil action for damages against his employer for failing to properly classify the employee if the employer had knowledge of the individual’s misclassification. An individual’s representative may bring the action on behalf of the individual. If the court finds that the employer has not properly classified the individual as an employee, the court may award the individual damages in the amount of any wages, salary, employment benefits, including expenses incurred by the employee that would otherwise have been covered by insurance, or other compensation lost to the individual, a reasonable attorney fee, and the costs incurred by the individual in bringing the action.
B. In a proceeding under subsection A, an individual who performs services for a person for remuneration shall be presumed to be an employee of the person that paid such remuneration, and the person that paid such remuneration shall be presumed to be the employer of the individual who was paid for performing the services, unless it is shown that the individual is an independent contractor as determined under the Internal Revenue Service guidelines.
C. As used in this section, “Internal Revenue Service guidelines” means the most recent version of the guidelines published by the Internal Revenue Service for evaluating independent contractor status, including its interpretation of common law doctrine on independent contractors, and any regulations that the Internal Revenue Service may promulgate regarding determining whether an employee is an independent contractor, including 26 C.F.R. § 31.3121(d)-1.
D. In a proceeding under subsection A, a hiring party providing an individual with personal protective equipment in response to a disaster caused by a communicable disease of public health threat for which a state of emergency has been declared pursuant to § 44-146.17 shall not be considered in any determination regarding whether such individual is an employee or independent contractor. For the purposes of this subsection, the terms “communicable disease of public health threat,” “disaster,” and “state of emergency” have the same meaning as provided in § 44-146.16.