Posts tagged Independent Contractor
Fast-food prices hiked after California ups minimum wage
November 13, 2023 // In that January article, I called this “the iron law of California progressivism: Claim that new laws will help the poor. When the actual effect turns out to be catastrophic for the poor, blame capitalism/markets/billionaires/racism, and expand government control of the business. Rinse, repeat, and promote as a national — even global — model for equity. And if Californians have anything to say about it, AB 257 will be coming to you, no matter where you live in the United States.” Indeed, Biden’s forever-acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su has already expressed her unbridled enthusiasm for California’s policy. That’s no surprise, either: Su was California’s secretary of labor, and is closely tied to the union leadership behind a number of execrable labor policies. Among the most notorious is AB 5, the law that banned independent contracting in key industries, including Uber drivers and trucking companies. When AB 257 emerged from the same fetid philosophical swamp, there was Su, now part of the Biden administration, telling the bill’s supporters, “The Department of Labor stands with you. The Biden-Harris Administration stands with you.”
Lawyers will square off on California trucking’s latest AB5 exemption request
November 12, 2023 // AB5 is a state law that seeks to define independent contractors through the ABC test. For trucking, the B prong in the ABC test is a particular burden, as it defines an independent contractor as one who “performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.” A trucking company hiring an independent owner-operator to move freight could be challenged under the B prong. The various participants in the case have filed briefs in recent weeks laying out their arguments that will be reiterated in court Monday. The last year has seen revised complaints from CTA and OOIDA, widening the scope of their arguments. Those revisions and the state responses have provided extensive documentation on the positions each side is taking in the case, which is formally known as CTA v. Bonta, after Rob Bonta, the state’s attorney general. (The original defendant in the case was then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra, now the Biden administration’s secretary of Health and Human Services.)
California Freelancer Says She Questioned How She Would ‘Survive’ Under This State Law
October 16, 2023 // Anderson says she has worked for almost 25 years as a freelance writer, an editor or managing editor, and a photographer. She says she “started investigating” the state’s new law “and I realized that … it encompassed all professions.” “So golf caddies, videographers, photographers, nurse practitioners, whatever. So I thought, well, I want to find out how it’s affecting other people, not just me,” Anderson says of the law, adding: And so I started this public Facebook group just to see if I could hear some people’s stories and … sure enough, they started coming in in … November and December, people started losing their livelihoods overnight. Anderson, a participant in a recent Heritage Foundation panel discussion, is today’s guest on “The Daily Signal Podcast.” She shares the No. 1 takeaway of the California law with listeners and discusses what’s being done to change it.
Biden Bypasses Senate Confirmation in Labor’s Julie Su
October 3, 2023 // According to the GAO, she can stay in the top Labor Department post without Senate confirmation. That effectively cuts out the voters and sets a poor precedent. Now, should some federal secretary depart, the president need only appoint an “acting” replacement. According to the Government Accountability Office, that person can avoid Senate confirmation and remain on the job, regardless of their suitability for the post.
PRO Act Debate Dominates Senate HELP Markup
June 27, 2023 // “One piece of legislation under consideration today is the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. It is not pro-worker. The PRO Act is not pro-worker, it is just pro-big union. Being pro-worker means defending the rights of all workers, including those who decide they don’t want to join a union,” Ranking Member Senator Bill Cassidy said in his opening remarks. “It eliminates secret ballot elections for unionization, the gold standard to keep somebody from being put into a corner and intimidated until they vote the way the intimidator wishes them to vote. Secret ballot elections also protect workers from retaliation if they choose a different way.” Senate HELP Republicans offered amendments to the bill, but their recommendations were rejected by the Committee Chair and chief sponsor of the bill, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The bill passed out of committee and no date has been set for a full Senate vote. This markup comes in the wake of 33 Senate Republicans urging the Biden administration to withdraw Julie Su’s nomination to helm the Labor Department. Su would oversee the enforcement of the PRO Act and other labor policies if she is confirmed.
California Independent Contractor Law Faces Withering Attacks
June 16, 2023 //
Foxx: The NLRB and Big Labor Are Unabashed Bedfellows
June 14, 2023 //
Commentary: Economic Freedom Is Under Assault In Washington
June 13, 2023 // The DOL’s proposed rule change is yet another economically regressive measure that imposes greater barriers on professionals and consumers alike. Lawmakers that stand on the side of personal freedom, economic independence, and the entrepreneurism that drives economic growth must challenge the Administration on this disastrous approach. Stopping this rule change in its tracks would protect the millions of independent contractors that choose freedom, flexibility, and autonomy, as well as the millions more Americans in dire need of their services.
OPINION: Sen. Sinema Shouldn’t Let Julie Su Turn Ariz. Into Calif.
June 5, 2023 // More than one million freelance workers lost work in the wake of AB5’s passage. In response to public outrage, the California legislature carved out scores of politically connected professions from the draconian legislation so that it no longer applied to musicians, translators, writers, photographers, and many others. But big labor’s main targets – independent truckers and the gig economy – are still suffering from AB5’s harsh policy. Even the notoriously left-leaning Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has suggested that AB5’s sponsors and enforcers may have had no legitimate policy objectives in mind when granting exemptions to AB5, and instead acted out of "animus" by targeting companies that facilitate vast swaths of independent contracting.
Are Unionized Gig Workers The Future Of Work?
June 2, 2023 // Additionally, some unions—because of a lack of resources—aren’t able to take the most direct approach to helping gig workers. “Unfortunately, right now there are some unions that have taken a ‘strategic’ approach of trying to work with the companies and become their labor partners,” says Dryburgh. “In May 2021, they tried getting a law passed in NYC that would provide Independent Drivers Guild and Transport Workers Unions fees for representing workers that would come from fares and delivery fees. The problem with these laws is that while they provide immediate benefits to workers, they create these carveouts that prevent app-based workers from being classified as employees. These kinds of deals can have irreparable consequences for the rest of the labor movement. If the new standard of whether you are an employee depends if you get your job through an app, all W2 employees are in trouble.”