A California senator is calling for the state's Secretary of Labor to investigate Deel, a buzzy San Francisco-based HR startup valued $12 billion, over"brazen employment misclassification."
Founded in 2018, Deel helps companies expand and hire around the world. It has a variety of products, from HR and payroll tools to an"Employee Of Record" service in which it hires workers on a client's behalf in countries they don't yet have a legal presence.
In an accompanying statement, state senator Dave Cortese, Chair of the Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee, said:"Any company found breaking the law will be brought to justice, and they would certainly have no business advising other companies on labor law." "Compliance is literally what we do, in over 120 countries. We have to understand it for our customers, and we certainly practice it ourselves," the Deel spokesperson said."Today we have over 50 compliance experts in house and an external network of country advisors. To advise clients on how to misclassify their workers would be at complete odds with our business model.