Opinion ID: 449644
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the applicable law: the sureway cleaners test

Text: 20 Congress and the courts have both recognized that, of all the acts of social legislation, the Fair Labor Standards Act has the broadest definition of employee. See 81 Cong.Rec. 7657 (remarks of Senator Hugo L. Black); Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Zippo Manufacturing Co., 713 F.2d 32, 37 (3d Cir.1983). In determining whether a worker is an employee of another person or organization within the purview of the FLSA, 5 the Supreme Court, in Rutherford Food Corp. v. McComb, 331 U.S. 722, 67 S.Ct. 1473, 91 L.Ed. 1772 (1947), emphasized that the circumstances of the whole activity should be examined rather than any one particular factor. Id. at 730, 67 S.Ct. at 1476; see also Bartels v. Birmingham, 332 U.S. 126, 127, 67 S.Ct. 1547, 1548, 91 L.Ed. 1947 (1947) (determination of employee status under the Social Security Act); United States v. Silk, 331 U.S. 704, 705, 67 S.Ct. 1463, 1464, 91 L.Ed. 1757 (1947) (same). 21 In Rutherford, the Court held that boners who worked in a slaughterhouse were employees under the FLSA, even though they were paid collectively on a piece-rate basis, owned their own tools, and worked under individual employment contracts. Rutherford, 331 U.S. at 730, 67 S.Ct. at 1746. Specific factors examined by the Rutherford Court in rendering its decision included: whether the work being done is part of the integrated unit of production: whether the workers shift from one workplace to another as a unit; whether managers from the alleged employer keep in close touch with the workers; and whether the work is more like piecework than an enterprise dependent for success on the workers' initiative, judgment or foresight. Id. at 729-30, 67 S.Ct. at 1476-77. 22 Recently, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in Donovan v. Sureway Cleaners, 656 F.2d 1368 (9th Cir.1981), refined the test for employee status originally set forth initially by the Supreme Court in Rutherford. This test lists six specific factors for determining whether a worker is an employee: 23 1) the degree of the alleged employer's right to control the manner in which the work is to be performed; 2) the alleged employee's opportunity for profit or loss depending upon his managerial skill; 3) the alleged employee's investment in equipment or materials required for his task, or his employment of helpers; 4) whether the service rendered requires a special skill; 5) the degree of permanence of the working relationship; 6) whether the service rendered is an integral part of the alleged employer's business. 24 656 F.2d at 1370 (quoting Real v. Driscoll Strawberry Associates, 603 F.2d 748, 754 (9th Cir.1979)). 25 In addition, Sureway Cleaners instructs that neither the presence nor absence of any particular factor is dispositive and that courts should examine the circumstances of the whole activity, 656 F.2d at 1370 (citing Rutherford Food Corp. v. McComb, 331 U.S. 722, 730, 67 S.Ct. 1473, 1476, 91 L.Ed. 1772 (1947)), and should consider whether, as a matter of economic reality, the individuals are dependent upon the business to which they render service. 656 F.2d at 1370 (citing Bartels v. Birmingham, 332 U.S. 126, 130, 67 S.Ct. 1547, 1549, 91 L.Ed. 1947 (1947)). The Sureway Cleaners test has been previously cited with approval by this court in dicta. See Zippo, 713 F.2d at 36-37 (3d Cir.1983). We now adopt it as the standard for determining employee status under the FLSA, and we will proceed to analyze the district court's decision in relation thereto.