Posts tagged Independent Contractor
How the New Independent Contractor Rule Could Impact the Senior Care Gig Economy
February 27, 2024 // einer notes that the rule’s implementation follows a general movement throughout the country that is making it much harder for employers or businesses to classify workers as independent contractors. “However, since it’s a rule and not a statute, courts don’t necessarily have to follow it,” he says, although federal courts are inclined to follow guidance and rules issued by USDOL. “When the USDOL conducts an audit, they’re going to follow their own rules and guidance,” Weiner says. “Once you’re under an investigation by USDOL, you’re under their control. But because this rule has yet to go into effect, we don’t know necessarily what the overall real-world implications are.”
The Department of Labor Returns to the Totality-of-the-Circumstances Test for Worker Classification
February 6, 2024 // Employers in states with stricter rules must meet whichever standard provides the greatest protection for workers. Regardless of the analysis applied, remember that workers cannot “waive” their status as an employee and voluntarily elect to be an independent contractor. Highly Regulated Industries Take Note The Final Rule purports to address the concerns that compliance with “legal obligations, safety or health standards, or requirements to meet contractual or quality control obligations may indicate control[.]” The DOL sought to address this concern by stating “actions taken by the potential employer for the sole purpose of complying with a specific, applicable Federal, State, Tribal, or local law or regulation are not indicative of control.” However, the DOL makes clear that anything going “beyond compliance” with these laws or regulations potentially indicates control—a distinction likely to be litigated in misclassification disputes. Bottom Line: Franchisors Must be Cautious of the Restrictions and Controls it Places Over Franchisees.
Commentary: Why we just sued the US Department of Labor
February 6, 2024 // As one of us testified before Congress last year, the Biden administration remains relentless. It’s now attempting a regulatory workaround with the Department of Labor’s independent contractor rule, which, in a cruel twist, was released just days before Mercatus Center research showed that the protesting independent contractors have been right all along. Mercatus found that the California approach not only failed to create unionizable jobs, but actually decreased overall employment by 4.4 percent and self-employment by 10 percent. Mercatus also noted that this happened despite California ultimately exempting more than 100 professions. The new Labor rule exempts none. The department acknowledges there may be “conceptual overlap” with the California law’s most harmful language. We agree. What’s worse is that the Labor rule is so vague, it’s impossible for anyone to know how to operate legally with independent contractors. The Biden administration sees this as a feature, not a bug.
Rachel Greszler: 64 million Americans risk losing work under Biden administration rule
January 30, 2024 // The group Freelancers Against AB 5 compiled a list of more than 600 professions that have been negatively affected by independent contracting restrictions, and Americans for Tax Reform documents more than 600 personal testimonials of workers who’ve been harmed. Karen Anderson, the founder of Freelancers Against AB5, testified to federal lawmakers about children’s theaters and nonprofit youth sports clubs closing their doors; sign language interpreters unable to provide ADA-mandated services to the deaf; and professionals having to move out of state to maintain their livelihoods.
Freelancers defend economic liberty from vague DOL rule
January 25, 2024 // Kim Kavin is a freelance writer and editor from New Jersey. Kim writes and edits content for magazines, newspapers, and corporate brands and has authored multiple books. She is a past president of the professional association Boating Writers International, whose membership includes many freelance writers. Kim, along with Jen Singer and Deborah Abrams Kaplan, also from New Jersey, and Karon Warren, based in Georgia, founded an online group called Fight For Freelancers to contest policies like AB5 and the Department of Labor’s rule that seek to make it more difficult for them to work as independent contractors. Their livelihoods depend on them being able to work as freelancers, and they want to be able to keep the mutually beneficial business relationships they have with their clients. Represented free of charge by Pacific Legal Foundation, Fight For Freelancers, Kim, Jen, Deborah and Karon are asking a federal court to restore their right to earn an honest living without interference by the DOL’s illegally vague independent contractor rule.
Opinion: Biden adds to his ‘Bidenomics’ flop: This new rule throws wrench in popular gig economy.
January 22, 2024 // Biden promised to be the “most pro-union president you’ve ever seen,” so he needs to reward all those campaign donations. And Biden’s doing it regardless of the impact on the economy. Independent contractors cannot be unionized, so the more companies lean on these workers, the less ability unions have to organize. It’s really that simple. The Biden administration is trying to sell its new rule as a way to protect workers and make it easier for them to qualify for benefits such as overtime pay and paid time off.
GOP Reps: Biden’s New Rule Rips Freedom Away from Workers, Small Businesses | Opinion
January 17, 2024 // Biden's rule on independent contractors circumvents Congress, the people's representation, to enact a disastrous policy similar to that in California's Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) and the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. AB5, enacted in January 2020, led to countless Californians who were working as freelance employees losing their income mere weeks before the COVID pandemic. The radical PRO Act would take away independent contractors' ability to work how they see fit. Taking these failed far-Left policies nationwide would devastate millions of American businesses by depriving individuals of entrepreneurial opportunities, the ability to set their own hours, and the flexibility to care for their families the way it suits them.
Biden vows veto if Congress moves to repeal NLRB rule on contract, franchise workers
January 10, 2024 // The rule replaced a Trump-era regulation requiring companies to have "direct and immediate" control over workers in order to be considered joint employers, which was favored by business groups. "Reversing this rulemaking will prevent workers from exercising their right to bargain for higher wages, better benefits, and safer working conditions," the OMB said on Monday. "Too often, companies deny workers this right by hiding behind subcontractors, staffing agencies, and temporary agencies." The House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved the resolution for a vote last month. The federal Congressional Review Act allows Congress to repeal agency rules within 60 days of their adoption. The resolution only needs the support of a majority in the House and Senate to pass, but would require a two-thirds majority to overcome a Biden veto.
9th Circuit panel will hear Uber/Postmates case on AB5
December 22, 2023 // The decision handed down by a three-judge panel in March was notable primarily for its reasoning that Uber and Postmates had been denied equal protection of the law in the process that led to the California approval of AB5, state legislation that required companies that hire independent contractors to reclassify them as employees. Equal protection of the law was the only claim by Uber and Postmates that the appellate panel backed; it supported the lower court rejection of other arguments. The panel cited the statements of then-Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, now a state labor leader but the key driver in turning AB5 into law, as evidence that the move to more tightly define when a worker can legitimately be considered an independent contractor was an effort targeted at gig drivers like those at Uber.
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.”