Johnson Insurance Brokers: Examining the Employer/Employee Dynamics

This case study examines the relationship between Tina and Johnson Insurance Brokers to determine whether Tina is an employee or a contractor providing services. The analysis focuses on the nature of Tina's contract, her responsibilities, and the level of control exerted by Johnson Insurance Brokers. Key aspects considered include Tina's set weekly hours, her ability to hire part-time workers, her limited contact within the company (only with the Facilities Manager), and her use of her own tools and materials. The case concludes that Tina is likely a contractor operating under a 'contract for service' agreement, highlighting the differences between this arrangement and a traditional employer-employee relationship, particularly in terms of control, benefits, and the business-to-business nature of the contract. The analysis references relevant literature to support its conclusions about contract law and outsourcing practices.

Running head: THE EMPLOYER/EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP
The Employer/Employee Relationship
Name of Student:
Student ID:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

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THE EMPLOYER/EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP
Tina is having an annual contract with the Johnson Insurance Brokers for offering
services related to property maintenance. She is assigned to work 20 hours on weekly basis at the
premises of the company for which she is being paid a flat amount. She is the one who hires the
part-time workers as and when required by her. Tina is stated to be in ‘service for contract’ with
Johnson Insurance brokers.
As per Belyaeva (2014), in case of contract of service of employees with the employer,
a worker is required to execute the tasks in the way they are being instructed by the line manager
as per their description of jobs. In case of contract of service, the workers need to present
themselves for work and would never be able to propel someone else for the work as a substitute.
Tina offers only 20 hours to this insurance house which cannot be possible for employees as they
need to provide more hours of work. Tina though was able to hire people for work as and when
she needed a bit of help from others. Employees have the scope of enjoying additional benefits
that can vary as per the employer, but might take into account the company cars, insurance
related to private health, gyms and many others. It has been mentioned in the case study that
Tina did not have any other clients except for Johnson insurance Brokers. Moreover, her only
contact with the company has been Fred Sinclair, the Facilities Manager who meets her every
Monday. Same cannot be hold good for employees as employees need to report to their seniors
and managers on a daily basis and for an employee a line or facilities manager cannot be her only
contact with the organization. This can happen in contract for service where there is a contractor-
client contract.
A contract for service is generally a business to business affair between two firms.
Contractor organizations have the power to enter into contract for services with another firm
having clear set of responsibility and rights (www.canada.ca 2017). There is a prerequisite in

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THE EMPLOYER/EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP
supplying services to the client according to the planned specification of the contract as has been
the case with Tina. Tina needs to spend on an average 20 hours on the company premises for
which a flat amount is being offered to her. Other monthly invoices which are being incurred by
Tina as supplementary is approved by Fred, the Facilities Manager before submitting the same to
Accounts payable. Moreover, in case of contract for services, the contractor makes use of her
own tools and materials which is what Tina does, using her won small tools. However, the
company does offer her with other possible supplies and a snow plow for the fact that it seems
Tina is a small contractor and does not possess all the required elements which are sometimes
done by clients in providing the contractors with required elements for better work.
Organizations at times deal with small contractors for saving enough money that can be
channelized to some other profitable ventures (Wang and Wei 2013). The flat amount that is
being paid to Tina is out of the agreed rate that was fixed at the time of the contract. The
contractor too needs to provide the services as agreed and any extra amount that has been spent
would be settled on submitting the invoices to the accounts section.

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THE EMPLOYER/EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP
Reference:
Belyaeva, O.V., 2014. Contract service or contract manager?. Uchet v budjetnyh uchrejdeniyah,
(3).
Canada, P. (2017). General Conditions of a Service Contract - Canada.ca. [online] Canada.ca.
https://www.canada.ca/en/public-service-commission/corporate/about-us/doing-business-public-
service-commission/general-conditions-service-contract.html [Accessed 26 Apr. 2017].
de Almeida, A.T., Cavalcante, C.A.V., Alencar, M.H., Ferreira, R.J.P., de Almeida-Filho, A.T.
and Garcez, T.V., 2015. Decision on maintenance outsourcing. In Multicriteria and
Multiobjective Models for Risk, Reliability and Maintenance Decision Analysis (pp. 249-272).
Springer International Publishing.
Wang, C.Y. and Wei, H.Y., 2013. Profit maximization in femtocell service with contract
design. IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, 12(5), pp.1978-1988.