Hi
I have been employed for the past 1 1/2 as a tobacco sales rep for Japan Tobacco Int'l. I was hired and signed papers as an Independant Contractor thru JTI's agency, Marss America. I submitted weekly time activity reports and monthly expense reports for (re-imbursement) directly to the agency but all contact and communication was made through my immediate supervisor District Mgr at JTI. However, the promise was made at several levels within JTI management that this was the first step in hiring me as a permanant JTI employee. This promise was made in front of many other employees countless times as was scheduled to happen last December, that was prior to my District Mgr's resignation.
I attended every meeting and conference as all other reps and received the exact same instructions, had to submit time sheets...everything exactly the same as other reps. The only difference was that I was classifed as an "agency rep" which does not receive insurance benefits...otherwise I was expected and required to do the same assignments as the other sales people and was always praised as being the No#1 sales rep in the district.
In a nutshell; recently my DMgr resigned and a new one replaced him. she was a tyrant and impossible to please. I can't say I was shocked when she told me 6 wks ago that she was going to have to let me go because JTI was terminating it's contract with Marss America (the agency) which meant I had no job....no unemployment rights etc... however, I have done alot of research into how the IRS determines status between the employee/independant contractor. With everything I have uncovered I clearly have been misclassifed as I meet EVERY single classification factor under the status of employee and want to know what I can do about it
RENEE' CHIMENTI
(559) 229-6830
choose2achieve@yahoo.com

