Fraggleout
Dallas,#2Consumer Suggestion
Thu, October 25, 2007
I am not a lawyer and do not intend to provide legal advice but I have had dealings with the individuals you mentioned and The Motivators Network/National Home Trainers. You're correct; you should be considered an employee. First, you should contact the Texas Work Force commission because you may have been entitled to unemployment payments when you left National Home Trainers. At a minimum they will investigate the company to be sure they're abiding by the law and treating employees as employees and contractors as contractors. Also, contact the IRS. As an employer National Home Trainers is supposed to pay half of the social security payments you need to make annually. If you don't, you'll have to pay the Social Security Administration 15% of whatever you earned in self employment tax at the end of the year (in addition to your regular income tax). Next, post your report on bbb.org (Better Business Bureau), and complaints so everyone can find it. Finally, I'd recommend taking them to small claims court. It's not hard to file a case, you can do it by going to the court house, filling out a form and paying a small processing fee all of which takes less then 30 minutes. National Home Trainers will more then likely just pay you rather then go to court. If they do decide to take it to court I've seen similar instances where illegal immigrants have won the case because they have done work and were not paid. It sounds like your case is stronger. The worst that can happen is you'd be out your filling fee, at best you'd get your $1000 plus your filing fee. I hope this helps. You're correct about all your comments and the only way to help others not have the same problems as you is to be proactive. Perhaps with a pro-active stance you can help future customers and employees and recoup the money they owe you (or at lease not have to pay more at the end of the year in taxes).