More misclassification news: Northwestern Mutual involved in class-action suit

There's more misclassification litigation being reported by Staffing Industry Analysts, and this time, it's against Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. Former sales representatives are claiming they were misclassified as independent contractors, and were denied minimum wage and overtime. The class-action lawsuit seeks $200 million from Northwestern Mutual.

Some of the CFOs I have spoken with recently have told me that this issue is definitely on their minds. And it's not going to be the last we hear of this type of litigation--it's almost certain to pick up steam.

We've touched on this before, but it's critical to emphasize again: if you're in a cash strapped state, it's crucial to conduct your own audit now, and make the criteria for independent contractors as strict as possible. It's probably not a bad idea to thoroughly document your policies and procedures along the way as well.