Safety and OSHA News  Should taxi drivers be eligible for
workers’ comp?  As more and more companies use independent
contractors to do work formerly handled by employees, these
questions come up more often: Employee or contractor? Eligible
for workers’ comp or not?  Example: Taxi cab drivers. Right now
in Pennsylvania, they’re considered independent contractors. A
bill in the state legislature would change that.  Alex Friedman,
secretary of the Philadelphia Taxi Association, a group that
owns the medallions for about half of the cabs in the city, says
they’re contractors.  “We do not pay them salary. We do not
control their working hours. We do not tell them to go in
certain routes. They are not our employees. We are not their
employers,” Friedman told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Therefore
we do not pay any workers’ compensation.”  Ronald Blount, who
heads the Taxi Workers Association of Philadelphia, sees it
differently. “We believe we’re misclassified,” he said. Blount
said cab drivers can’t turn off the di