Cases

The FWCJUA is a self funding residual market insurer created by the Legislature in order to provide workers' compensation insurance to employers who are statutorily required to maintain such insurance but who are unable to obtain coverage from private insurers involved in the voluntary market.  The employer in this case specialized in talent payroll services for the motion picture, television, and radio commercial production industry.  Services provided included paying wages to  employees of client companies, providing unemployment compensation and workers' compensation coverage and withholding and remitting taxes due as well as filing federal and state tax returns and providing W2s to employees.  The company described itself as a temporary employment service. 

The FWCJUA determined that the company was an unlicensed employee leasing company and therefore denied coverage.  The Office of Insurance Regulation, however, reversed the FWCJUA's denial of coverage finding that while the employer was not an employee leasing company, it was an employer under Florida law because it was a "similar agent" under Section 440.02(16)(a), Florida Statutes.

The court determined that the company was a "similar agent" who provides employees to other persons in accordance with Section 440.02(16)(a) and therefore qualifies as an employer under the Workers' Compensation Act, i.e., employment includes employment agencies, employee leasing companies and "similar agents who provide employees to other persons."  Court determined that based on the fact that the company's relationship to its client was based on a contractual relationship, the business was a similar agency under Section 440.02(16)(a), Florida Statutes.  The company did more for its clients than just ministerial functions of issuing paychecks to its client employees. The company operated as the employer of record for the talent they recruited.  See Bolanos v. Workforce Alliance, 23 So. 3d 171(Fla. 1st DCA 2009).