|
Out of Circulation?
The state Employment Department draws new protests for ruling that signature gatherers must be paid as employees, not independent contractors. BY PATTY WENTZ, 243-2122
Bill Sizemore says if he's next on the Oregon Employment Department's hit list, he's ready. "They can play all the games they want, but OED is not the ultimate authority on this," says Oregon's leading anti-tax evangelist. "The federal courts are." Sizemore is talking about whether or not paid petition circulators--the folks who gather signatures for ballot measures--qualify as independent contractors. Sizemore and other political activists say circulators are contractors, but the OED has twice ruled that they are employees who qualify for unemployment insurance. The OED rulings may be good news for signature gatherers, but they're costly for the folks who pay them. Putting someone on payroll costs an estimated 20 percent more than having him or her do contract work. The most recent case means that Canvasser Services of Portland owes more than $11,000 in back payroll taxes for the folks who collected signatures for the company in 1996. Last month's ruling against Canvasser has shaken petitioners. Ruth Bendl, a veteran Washington County activist who ran the company's 1996 petition drives, was known for following the rules. If Canvasser's circulators were found to be employees, rather than contractors, most petitioners figure, all circulators will be deemed employees. Many activists, including Sizemore, suspect that state officials opposed to paid circulators are using the Employment Department to curb the practice of paying per-signature bounties ("Taking the Initiative," Oct. 1, 1997). "I don't always agree with Ruth Bendl, but I do believe this is a political attack," Sizemore says. Sizemore may find an unlikely ally. The possibility that a government agency may be singling out a constitutionally protected practice has captured the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union. Executive director David Fidanque says the ACLU has begun to monitor the cases. Fidanque says it's common knowledge that a lot of people in Salem don't like the initiative system. "We want to ensure OED enforces the rules in an even-handed way and make sure this ruling isn't a way to halt the process," he says. OED officials say they only audit companies if a former employee makes a claim for unemployment compensation. There are eight criteria that determine whether a worker is an independent contractor. The toughest requirement for signature gatherers is that contractors must have a business that will continue after the campaign ends. Sizemore says he followed the rules when he paid his circulators as independent contractors. If OED audits him and he loses, he says he'll take it to federal court. But not everyone has the resources to be so nonchalant. Environmental activist Lloyd Marbet, director of the Coalition for Initiative Rights, says people are starting to become seriously concerned. He is seeing a new interest in his loose-knit group of citizen activists from people who have never been to a meeting before. CIR has even hired Portland lawyer Linda Williams to advise members on how to pay circulators collecting signatures for next year's ballot measures. Williams says she hasn't been able to get a firm answer from the state. Until she does, her advice for circulating companies is, "It's time to rally the volunteers." Donna Hunter, manager of OED's tax section, says it is possible to use contractors, rather than employees, to collect signatures. "If you find your circulators through a yellow pages ad, and they have their own business cards and telephone lines and an established business, you're probably all right," she says. "But if you advertise for them, and they come to you with no experience and you have to train them, you'd be smart to ask them the extra questions to determine they are independent contractors." |
