Well that's too bad. Hopefully the lawyer is correct in that it's not a big setback.
You're hardly an independent contractor when you are told how to do your job, forced to wear a company uniform, and have to fly the company colors.
But, they hired on knowing all this, so I don't feel a whole lot of sympathy for them. But it would be nice that if you're expected to be a company man/woman, you get the same bennies the rest of us get.