I believe we are classified as independent contractors when CA law would actually classify the group as employees. Because this company is still hiring coaches and there is a group of at least 80-100 working now, I believe this affects a lot of people and the benefits we deserve. We make $20 an hour for the first ~500 hours to do unregulated mental health work and because the role of “coach” is unregulated, it allows the company the freedom to be predatory in their business practices.
The reason why I believe we are misclassified is because we are unable to do this work without the training the company provides to us. We are trained for 2 weeks and then expected to use the skills taught in this training to help clients. We receive internal certifications (only recognized by the company) that allow us to use the skills and if you are stripped of this certification at the company’s discretion, you are unable to work using these skills in any other setting. The training is unpaid, but we sign a contract that values the training in the tens of thousands and if we break any part of the contract, the company reserves the right to charge us for the training after terminating the agreement.
Would I need a lawyer to address this or can I report them to an agency? Thanks.