Template: hiring checklist (the classification decision, then everything due before and after the first day)
In one paragraph
One page that starts with the only question that matters, employee or licensed subcontractor, and then walks every filing and document from the decision to the 90th day in the order it is due, with the deadline and the section beside each line. Print it the day you decide to hire; it should be finished before the start date except for the items that cannot be. Beside the blank, the checklist filled in for Mateo Salcedo's hire done right: the same helper from the case in this phase, hired as a registered trainee on payroll with coverage bound the week before.
The rule
A helper doing electrical work is an employee unless the hiring entity proves all three ABC conditions, which part B defeats for an electrical contractor (Labor Code 2775(b)(1)); a lawful subcontractor is a CSLB-licensed business meeting all seven conditions of 2781. For an employee: workers' compensation coverage and the CSLB certificate before the first hour (B&P 7125, 7125.2, 7125.4); certification, trainee registration with enrollment and one-to-one supervision, or apprentice status before any device is connected (Labor Code 108.2, 108.4); Form I-9 Section 2 within three business days (USCIS); EDD registration within 15 days (UIC 1086); DE 34 within 20 days (EDD); the 2810.5 notice at hire; IIPP training at hire (8 CCR 3203); and a payroll that produces the 226 stub and the sick leave balance on a designated payday (Labor Code 204, 246).
Why it matters
The hires that go wrong in this phase's cases did not go wrong because the contractor was careless on the job; they went wrong because six filings with four agencies have deadlines measured in days and nobody had them on one page. This is the page. Done in order, it makes the first hire boring, which is the goal.