[kahnpro]

Honestly, most contracting developers are actually employees, and this position is just used as a way to skirt tax and labor laws. The abuse here isn't from the court, it's from devs and businesses.

Devs don't care simply because the pay is high enough and there are a ton of jobs available.

[eecc]

Somewhat true, but to me what matters as a freelance is that I get to make the call when I’ve had enough of a particular contract, or choose whether to wait for a more interesting project, or just sign up to whatever conference I feel it’s important to my own career plan.

When I was an employee I always had to beg to do anything, as well as suck up whatever shite projects the accounts would figure out would mean a sweet billability streak... dammit, the humiliation...

[kahnpro]

That's great if you're working as an actual freelancer. But most that I've seen don't get such freedoms.

Another good test is, are you allowed to subcontract your work or not?

[eecc]

Eh that’s a good question, practically never. But there’s some good reason for it, in that development is not a routine job where you are completely interchangeable. There’s - thankfully - a certain amount of creative skill and professional judgement that makes me the hire and not a sub of my choice.

Several years ago Italy introduced CoCoCo contracts to capture this concept of temporary professional employment, between an employee on your payroll and a butcher you buy a stake from.

Eventually companies abused it and applied it to completely subordinates such as call center operators. It was - rightfully, given the circumstances - repealed.

I wonder if we could have something like that again, it would be easier than this pantomime.