New York: Department Store Model is Employee of Skin Care Company

A "skin care specialist and spokesmodel,” who worked in a Bloomingdale's department store, was the employee of the skin care company whose products the model demonstrated, held a New York appellate court, affirming a decision of the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board. Accordingly, the spokesmodel could recover workers’ compensation benefits associated with injuries he sustained in a fall as he walked to a store restroom. He was not an independent contractor, nor was he considered an employee of the department store. The court observed that the injured spokesmodel’s schedule was set by a supervisor at the skin care company. He had also been trained by the company and had to abide by a strict dress code. The spokesmodel was paid an hourly rate and was required to ask permission from a skin care company supervisor before leaving his post to use the restroom. Substantial evidence supported the Board’s finding that the spokesmodel was an employee of the skin care company.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Matter of Colamaio-Kohl v. Task Essential Corp. 2018 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 204 (Jan. 11, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 61.05.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law