3rd Circuit Extends Civil Rights Protection to Independent Contractors
In handing down its ruling in Brown v. J. Kaz Inc. d/b/a Craftmatic of Pittsburgh the Third Circuit has joined First, Seventh, and Eleventh Circuits in ruling that an independent contractor can bring an employment discrimination action under §1981 of the Civil Rights Act. In Brown, the plaintiff was treated unfairly because of his race, but his claims were dismissed in the District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania because he was an independent contractor, instead of a “normal employee.”
The plaintiff also brought claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, but the Circuit Court affirmed the lower court’s ruling that those claims could not be advanced by an independent contractor.
