Our boss is calling a mandatory meeting, but not paying us to attend.
Only, it's tricky.
We're massage therapists, and it is common for us to be hired as Independent Contractors, even though we are essentially on indefinite contracts, set shifts, provided with (most) supplies, don't write invoices to get paid, perform core business services, etc. Many of the things that make us seem like employees. But we provide our own massage oil, a write off, and apparently that makes us contractors. We do have a contract, and it spells things out, and says they can let us go for no reason.
Once someone complained about this mandatory meeting without compensation thing being illegal, we were told that it is not technically mandatory as we are contractors, but if we want to keep being contracted, that there will be information shared in the meeting that is 'necessary' for us to continue our work, and attending is 'highly encouraged'.
All in all it feels hard to doing anything about this, as nothing is clear. Are we contractors or employees? Does their change of wording make the meeting not mandatory, even though we are being told we might lose our jobs if we don't attend?
Another thing that happens in this industry is for employees to be paid via consignment. Three massages equals x amount of money, but if there were no bookings, that 3 hours is unpaid but tracked. At the end of the week, the amount of time in is calculated, say 20 hours. 20 hours at minimum wage is X, and if the employee's compensation for their massage sessions didn't reach that amount, the employer needs to compensate the difference.
Because this is a thing, I'm wondering if that can at all apply in my situation, as technically we all probably make plenty more from our sessions than minimum wage. But since we are contractors that shouldn't be a thing they could use to avoid paying us for the meeting as far as I know.
I'm mostly just curious about clear information and options. Is what they're doing legal? Not legal? Are there resources we can reach out to?
Also, if we are let go for not attending, do we have any recourse at all? How far can they run with the 'can terminate for any reason' clause in our contract? Do their tactics amount to blackmail?
This is the kinda thing I find super sad. It'd cost them $15 bucks each to properly compensate the 20 or so of us. Hardly an amount to break the bank. But when we tried to educate them about the ethics of this our jobs were effectively threatened.
What resources are out there for us and those like us who shouldn't have to deal with this sort of stress from their employers?