temp to full time hiring

[kalmos]

In a startup company, and I need to hire engineers as temp for 3 months then if they are good, I will keep them as permanent employees. I am not dealing with any temp agency but I am dealing with the engineers directly.
1. Do I add them to the Payroll and pay their tax or just handle them a check and let them pay the tax?
2. Do I need to add them to the health insurance system that other permanent employees have?
3. What is the most appropriate contract type that I need to hire them?
4. If for any reason I could not hire them after 3 months will it be legal to lay them off without a reason?
5. Will it be better if I hire them as consultants?

 

[Ex HR Guy]

This is one you should ask your outside lawyer -- but here goes.

If they meet the definition of employee -- and they sure seem to, you are obligated to withhold taxes, pay social security and unemplyment and other benefits and cover them under your worker's comp. Calling an employee a consultant, does not make the employee a consultant.

You may be able to put them into a classification of employee that does not get heath coverage until they are there 3 months, or make all new employees pay the full freight for health insurance for the first 3 months and sort of waive that for the ones you want to (like it is a sign-on bonus). This may depend on the health plan you have and how much you can tinker with it.

If they are provisional hire employees, and you don't hire them permanently, they become laid off employees and could be eligible for unemployment comp -- depending on the period of time they were employees of yours.

If they were employed by a

are employees

 

[Attorney_Replogle]

I'll throw in my two cents here. Regarding your question number four, all employment in California is presumed to be at-will. This means that you can terminate an employee at any time for any reason at all or for no reason. Of course the exceptions to that rule is that you can't terminate a person based on a protected category such as age, race, religion, etc. Lastly, you really do need to pay the few dollars to get counseling from a lawyer that represents employers only in labor law. I only represent employees. Not only am I on the opposite side of the fence, but the laws and procedures are quite different. You can find one near you at attorneypages.com.

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Mark B. Replogle