Cases

Alleged employer Workforce Alliance Career Center (Center) is a nonprofit organization created pursuant to the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 to provide job assistance services for eligible individuals. The Center is federally funded. Claimant in this case obtained employment through the center and was injured. A workers’ compensation claim was filed against the Center.

Section 440.02(16)(8), Florida Statutes, defines an employer to include employment agencies, employee leasing companies and similar agents who provide employees to other persons. Claimant in this case alleged that the center was a "similar agent." No definition of an employment agency or employee leasing company is a part of the statute and court determined that in statutory construction, it is appropriate to resort to dictionaries for the interpretation of terms.

In order to be a "similar agent," there needs to be a financial arrangement between the agency and either the end employer/client or the employee (as seen in employment agencies) or the use of the entity’s own employees by the end employer/client (as seen in employee leasing companies). The Center in this case has neither of these requisite features to be considered a "similar agent." Claimant had asserted that a "similar agent" should include any labor exchange program matching employers and employees. Court refused to expand the definition of a "similar agent" to that degree.