An Act to Provide Workers' Compensation for Temporary Employees
Maine Legislature, Session 131, LD 1112
Committee: Labor and Housing
Sponsors: ADAMS
Amends: 39-A MRSA §102

Legislative Document
No. 1112
H.P. 708
House of Representatives, March 9, 2023
An Act to Provide Workers' Compensation for Temporary 
Employees
Reference to the Committee on Labor and Housing suggested and ordered printed.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative ADAMS of Lebanon.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  39-A MRSA §102, sub-§13-A, as enacted by PL 2011, c. 643, §8 and 
affected by §14, is amended to read:
13-A.  Independent contractor.  A person who performs services for remuneration is 
presumed to be an employee unless the employing unit proves that the person is free from 
the essential direction and control of the employing unit, both under the person's contract 
of service and in fact and the person meets specific criteria.  A temporary employment 
agency employee is an employee of the temporary employment agency and is not an 
independent contractor.  In order for a person other than a temporary employment agency 
employee to be an independent contractor:
A.  The following criteria must be met:
(1)  The person has the essential right to control the means and progress of the 
work except as to final results;
(2)  The person is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, 
occupation, profession or business;
(3)  The person has the opportunity for profit and loss as a result of the services 
being performed for the other individual or entity;
(4)  The person hires and pays the person's assistants, if any, and, to the extent such 
assistants are employees, supervises the details of the assistants' work; and
(5)  The person makes the person's services available to some client or customer 
community even if the person's right to do so is voluntarily not exercised or is 
temporarily restricted; and
B.  At least 3 of the following criteria must be met:
(1)  The person has a substantive investment in the facilities, tools, instruments, 
materials and knowledge used by the person to complete the work;
(2)  The person is not required to work exclusively for the other individual or entity;
(3)  The person is responsible for satisfactory completion of the work and may be 
held contractually responsible for failure to complete the work;
(4)  The parties have a contract that defines the relationship and gives contractual 
rights in the event the contract is terminated by the other individual or entity prior 
to completion of the work;
(5)  Payment to the person is based on factors directly related to the work 
performed and not solely on the amount of time expended by the person;
(6)  The work is outside the usual course of business for which the service is 
performed; or
(7)  The person has been determined to be an independent contractor by the federal 
Internal Revenue Service.
Sec. 2.  39-A MRSA §102, sub-§18-A is enacted to read:
18-A.  Temporary employment agency.  "Temporary employment agency" means an 
entity that contracts with an employer to provide on a project or temporary basis a person 
to perform services for the employer normally provided by an employee of the employer 
and remunerates the person for the services provided.
Sec. 3.  39-A MRSA §102, sub-§18-B is enacted to read:
18-B.  Temporary employment agency employee.  "Temporary employment agency 
employee" means a person who provides services on a project or temporary basis for an 
employer pursuant to a contract with a temporary employment agency under which the 
person is remunerated by the temporary employment agency for the services performed.
SUMMARY
This bill provides that, for the purposes of the Maine Workers' Compensation Act of 
1992, a person who works on a project or temporary basis for an employer pursuant to a 
contract with a temporary employment agency is an employee of the temporary 
employment agency and not an independent contractor.