Posts tagged ABC test
Senate panel advances Biden Labor nominee Julie Su
April 26, 2023 // “Today’s party-line vote is another reminder that Julie Su is no Marty Walsh, who advanced in a bipartisan 18-4 vote only two years ago,” said Michael Layman, a top lobbyist at the International Franchise Association, in a statement following Wednesday’s vote. The AFL-CIO is fighting back, running ads in Arizona and D.C. backing Su’s efforts to counter wage theft in California. The ads tell viewers that workers are “tired of getting ripped off by big corporations.” The labor federation is also mobilizing its members to lobby senators. “We’re going to defend Julie against these baseless corporate special interests attacks,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler told reporters last week. “Every senator, especially those that haven’t yet said that they’ll vote yes, needs to be aware of how much this confirmation means to working people’s lives.”
Gig Worker Qualifies as an Employee, California District Court Concludes
April 25, 2023 // The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled on March 30 that the driver should be classified as an employee who is entitled to overtime pay and minimum wage protections under state law. The court ruling is "more of a warning shot to show the consequences of failing to comply" with state rules on employee classification, said Bryan Hawkins, an attorney with Stoel Rives in Sacramento. Theane Evangelis, an attorney with Gibson Dunn in Los Angeles who represented Grubhub, said, "We disagree with the court's ruling and are considering our legal options. Thanks to Proposition 22—which California voters overwhelmingly enacted and the California Court of Appeal recently upheld—drivers who use the Grubhub app will continue to enjoy the freedom and flexibility of working as independent contractors."
What is the Employee Rights Act, and how would it advance worker freedom?
April 21, 2023 // Unlike the PRO Act – which, imbued with a dated and rigid workplace vision that is increasingly displacing American workers – the ERA would empower workers to seize more opportunity and take greater control of their futures.
How Utah Is Protecting Workers Without the Baggage of Unions | Opinion
March 28, 2023 // Utah's Portable Benefit Plan is a national breakthrough for independent contractors, establishing a legal pathway for entities to offer fully voluntary benefits plans that self-employed workers can open on their own. Unlike employer-sponsored health plans for traditional employees that are tied to jobs, Utah's self-employed workers instead will soon have access to a variety of new benefits plans that are entirely their own and entirely portable for their evolving careers. The possibilities of products that may be established are broad, including the potential for health insurance, unemployment insurance, and disability insurance related products. There is even a pre-existing financial tool known as a "Utah medical care savings account" that self-employed Utahns may conveniently use to pay for their portable health insurance benefits and medical expenses. Many opponents of independent contracting argue that such workers are exploited and deserve the health care and other benefits that many traditional employees receive.
ATA Expresses Concern Over Labor Secretary Nominee Julie Su
March 17, 2023 // In a letter to U.S. Senate labor leaders, American Trucking Associations President Chris Spear expressed concern about the track record that Labor Secretary nominee Julie Su would bring to the job, specifically as it relates to the rights of truck drivers to be independent contractors. “California’s AB 5, which Ms. Su helped pass and implement as Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, essentially outlaws their business model,” Spear wrote in a letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders, (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and ranking member Bill Cassidy (R-La.). The letter was copied to members of the committee.
California Court Rebukes War on Workers
March 16, 2023 // This obviously poses an existential threat to emerging app-based companies that rely on a contractor model, but it also posed an entirely predictable threat to many traditional professions where workers eschew the 9–5 cubicle or factory floor work model. When the Legislature codified Dynamex via Assembly Bill 5, which went into effect in January 2020, it exempted many industries — primarily those with the most influential lobbies. Nevertheless, economic destruction ensued. Companies eliminated jobs rather than hire people as salaried employees. Publications — including Vox, which ran a piece championing AB 5 — laid off its California stringers. Musical groups that relied on gig workers had to shutter their operations. All types of freelance workers — from photographers to sign-language interpreters to rabbis — suddenly found themselves in a pickle. The same Gov. Gavin Newsom who used his vast executive powers to suspend laws during the COVID pandemic refused to suspend AB 5, even as people who were forced to stay at home lost their stay-at-home freelance opportunities. Some Californians embraced the workaround of starting an LLC, but that imposed new costs on workers who already were struggling. Dynamex Operations West v. Superior Court of Los Angeles
Opinion: Let’s Continue to Fight for Freelancers
February 24, 2023 // New Senate HELP Committee Chairman and avowed socialist Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is eager to reintroduce the PRO Act in the chamber soon. The bill’s most recent version contained the following provisions: an ABC test that deems most workers employees and not independent contractors; a statute to abolish right-to-work; making union membership conditional for employment; and giving unions unfettered access to private worker information.
Sens. Braun, Burr, Thune, and Rep. Foxx Lead Republican Colleagues in Urging Department of Labor to Protect Independent Contractor Classification
December 19, 2022 // Senators Braun, Burr and Thune are leading a bicameral letter with Rep. Foxx (R-N.C.) urging the Department of Labor (DOL) not to move forward with its proposed rule for determining independent contractor classification due to the negative impact on workers and business, the test’s lack of clarity and the devastating consequences for the U.S. economy. They are joined by Sens. Hagerty, Romney, T. Scott, Cramer, Johnson, Barrasso, Cassidy, Lankford, Marshall, Hoeven, Blackburn, Boozman, Tuberville, Young, Lummis, Lee, R. Scott, Inhofe, Graham, Fischer, Ernst, Shelby, and Rounds as well as Reps. Wilson, Thompson, Walberg, Grothman, Stefanik, Allen, Banks, Comer, Fulcher, Keller, Miller-Meeks, Owens, Good, McClain, Harshbarger, Miller, Spartz, Fitzgerald, Steel, and Pete Sessions.
Commentary: What’s Next for America’s Independent Workers?
December 15, 2022 // If various state and federal policymakers have their way, however, Ms. Rankin’s business model might be soon regulated out of existence — whether she likes it or not. Rankin, like every other owner‐operator truck driver in America, is an independent worker – someone who takes on projects or jobs from different clients, relatively free from the clients’ control.
Give Gig Workers A Real Break
November 18, 2022 // Polling data also back the idea that most gig workers want to be gig workers. In “Independent Work,” Ilana Blumsack and Scott Lincicome cite a finding that about 90 percent of survey respondents “were happier in independent work than in traditional jobs.” Only 11 percent wanted to find full-time traditional employment.