Is it legal to dock an independent contractor’s pay for late submission of reports or projects past a certain date? Does it make a difference if the independent contractor has agreed to turn in all reports or projects within a certain timeframe? Or if the independent contractor has agreed to their pay being docked if they turn in their reports or projects past a certain date?
Thank you!

Ann Kiernan replies:

The time for submission of reports and resulting payment terms should all be in the written contract between your organization and the contractors. It certainly sounds reasonable to have a provision penalizing the contractor for late submission. But I would not characterize it as “docking pay”, which makes it sound like the worker is an employee. How about “contractual remedies for non-compliance” instead?

Posted 11-15-2016

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