Comment by PragmaticPulp | Hacker News Reader

Comment by PragmaticPulp | Hacker News Reader

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> In construction, parts of projects are routinely subcontracted out. The primary contractor is on the hook for ensuring quality.

> I don't see why software projects can't be the same.

Contractors can't automatically give subcontractors access to the plans, the construction site, and so on. The contracting agreement will have provisions about who can access the site, how they get approved, on what terms, and so on. Becoming a construction contractor doesn't give someone carte blanche to invite other people to a site without regard to the terms of the contract.

Likewise, a software contractor can't just decide to share your codebase and design documents with a subcontractor because it almost certainly violates many of the contractual clauses they agreed to.

> The contracting agreement will have provisions about who can access the site, how they get approved, on what terms, and so on.

I would definitely expect all of that to be handled by the primary contractor (i.e. the person who specializes in construction sites). No?

The terms are negotiated between the company and the contractors.

Being a contractor doesn't automatically grant someone the right to delegate access to sites and such.

I think a lot of people in this thread have misunderstand what the law is actually saying. The law doesn't say that if you're given contractor status you can do whatever you want. The law says that if the job is misclassified as a contracting position when it should be a full-time position, then the employee is owed benefits and such.

If you sign a contract with a company that says you will not share the code, design docs, system access credentials, physical building access, or other common stipulations, you can't automatically ignore those because you're a contractor.

I mean, yes, that’s right. The primary contractor runs the job site, manages who’s allowed to be on the site, and will absolutely complain if the known subcontractors smuggle in random unauthorized people to run cabling. It’s not like they’re being obnoxious just to make money; in construction, as in software, there are many regulatory and compliance related reasons that who does the work matters.

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