RE: Should I furnish computer?

Subject: RE: Should I furnish computer?
From: Ned Allison <ned-a -at- home -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2001 07:59:46 -0700

Bob:

To go along with this, there is a legal issue set that is being avoided. If you are providing your own equipment to work you are in essence becoming an independent contractor under the law. As such the company is not legally bound to pay benefits, may require you to have insurance, may require right of inspection, and if you are under a security agreement may require the machine you are working on be surrendered or wiped. You could be liable for costs and damages to your employer, and liable for taxes to the IRS, STATE and LOCAL up to and including self employment tax, which carries a pretax payment with penalties and interest, about which the IRS is very unlikely to forego if a "misunderstanding" has occurred. As an independent you are responsible for your own time and tools unless specified under contract and could be left holding the bag on all sorts of things. If tragedy should happen and the company go into bankruptcy, the courts would be left to decide your status and what you owe, and your personal property could be attached as asset or forfeit, and the court could invalidate your working relationship and force you to repay the company for anything it deemed improper. You could also be held liable for any damage done the company's computer network which could be argued came from your equipment or the attached line! there are a lot of issues here, and I would not approach them without legal advice!

Is the company wants to cut costs, then they could easily provide a PC and the DSL line to replace the SUN WS and IDSN line. After all you are also saving them the need to supply an office and facilities at one of their sites, which is a cost to them. This is not a one way issue, and a change to the arrangement is not to be approached lightly.

Ned

{Edits made to the below to meet list requirements, please forgive any wording changes caused by this, I felt the information raised was needed and fought hard to preserve the needed material. Ned}

At 04:37 PM 6/4/01 -0500, you wrote:

I'm working at home full-time as writer/editor because of disability using Sun ws on ISDN. Company is facing hard times, boss concerned about cost of ISDN wants me to use my PC on DSL. I asked if they would pay for use of my PC, answer no. I'm regular employee 6 years.
Should I push request to be paid for use of my PC or just donate my PC for 8 hours a day?

Bob,

Regardless, this might be a liability, both to you, and company. Does your PC add to your liability for damage to the company, if you lose files due to equipment failure? Are you liable for any usage of the equipment other than for company business? Is the company liable for anything you do on your computer? What is the company's responsibility for repair on your computer? Are they liable if you experience a failure, do they replace it? If your hard drive crashes, do they replace it? About the only people who provide equipment are contractors who work off-site, they are recompensed in what the company pays them. What about the cost of the DSL subscription? If they do go to DSL will you need to use VPN to secure your connection? Who will provide the client? Who is going to pay for the software you use on the PC? Has your boss asked the company lawyer about this? Your boss may want to consider these. On the other hand if you get laid off, you may have justification for discrimination due to disability. Asking you to provide your own PC, software, and connection, or any of these is not correct.

Scott


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