B
bvock99
Guest
I have been working for a doctor the last 71/2 years doing echocardiograms in his office. I was told I was an "independent contractor" and would be paid $55 per study unless there was 3 or less. Less than 3, I would be paid $60. I go to his office 1 day a week and do the exams that have been scheduled using his machine. Each study takes 30min. or less and I've asked to have the patients scheduled every 30min so I'm not tied up all day there doing nothing. But it's never been that way. I'm usually stuck with 2-3 patients in the am & 2-3 in the pm. I've never been paid as we agreed but now I have a big problem and don't quite know what to do about it. More than a year ago my doctor told me he wanted to start doing stress echoes. The doctors I had worked for in the past had paid me an additional $35-$40 for doing them. I first did the echo(30min) then did the exercise echo(an additional hour) I asked my doc what he would pay me & he said he'd let me know when he found out what he was going to get for them. That was more than a year ago and more than 100 stress echoes. He has not paid me any additional money. When I finally asked him about paying me, he jumped all over me asking why he should. When I explained to him that I was doing 2x the work and spending 1 1/2 hours of my time for nothing. He said, "you have to be here anyway and I only get $150 when I bill for stress echo so I bill for a treadmill and get $350??I have no idea what that meant. But"why should he pay me"? "He already paid me enough"! I heard he told a staff member that he would just get another tech to come over from the hospital and pay them $200 for the day if I didn't like it. Which brings me to my question, do I have any rights? I have been working for over a year doing all the extra work and getting nothing and now he's threatening to bring someone else to take my job. I have asked him for years to make me an employee, I have no benefits and pay all my own taxes and he's the only person I work for. He won't do it. I know I'm not an Independent Contractor, I'm an employee. What can I do? I need the work? Any legal options for me?