Posts tagged independent contractors
Pa. bill would give Uber, other app drivers benefits, but critics say they would lose more
October 6, 2024 // For years, labor advocates like the NELP have challenged app-based companies’ assertion that their drivers are independent contractors, arguing instead that they meet the threshold of being full-fledged employees covered by state unemployment and workers’ compensation and potentially be eligible for employer-sponsored healthcare and other benefits. Companies like Uber have argued that drivers are contractors because they aren’t required to accept any specific fare, and many prefer the flexibility of working gig-to-gig.
DOL Making it Harder to Hire Independent Contractors
October 1, 2024 // The DOL’s test is just one of many. The IRS uses a “right-to-control” test, which is generally more business-friendly, focusing on whether the hiring firm controls how the work is done. In contrast, many states apply the strict ABC test, where a worker must: ⦁ be free from the company’s control, ⦁ work outside the usual course of the hiring firm’s business, and ⦁ be engaged in an independent business or trade.
Feeding the Kitty
September 30, 2024 // Unions have pursued shareholder resolutions asking for a “free and fair election process,” meaning card check and neutrality. They have also sought to pass resolutions demanding audits of a company’s labor practices. It’s not hard to see how a future resolution could explicitly try to prohibit companies from using independent contractors.
Commentary: The Teamsters nonendorsement is an opening for Republicans
September 26, 2024 // This fact has been clear since Trump’s first term. He and his fellow Republicans repeatedly pursued policies that union leaders loathed but union members loved. He protected the rights of independent contractors, which has the support of 67% of union households. Sixty-four percent backed his protection of franchise small businesses from union control. Trump also sought to increase transparency and disclosures of union finances, which 81% of union households support. A second Trump term could see the GOP make further progress on union-member priorities. Polling shows that union members want guaranteed secret-ballot voting, protections for worker privacy, and right-to-work laws — all Republican policies. Yet union leaders oppose these same priorities. The Teamsters president made this fact clear in his speech to the Republican convention this summer, railing against the very policies his own members support. Republicans should ignore union leaders’ far-left demands. They should also ignore union-curious “conservative” groups that want Republicans to compromise on their principles.
Robert Boland: The future of college athlete pay hinges on the presidential election
September 25, 2024 // Most athletes would stand to gain much more from the actions of the NLRB, which could permanently classify collegiate athletes as employees of their universities. This would afford them not only the right to wages but also additional employee benefits such as workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and the right to both unionize and collectively bargain with their schools. The Biden-Harris administration — as well as its NLRB appointees — has been very labor-friendly, and we could expect a Harris-Walz administration to maintain the same approach. However, Republican appointees would be more likely to reject unionization and maintain the NCAA’s status quo — however uncertain — without granting student-athletes employee status or benefits.
Harris Pushes Gig Workers, Contractors into Corporate Jobs with New Rule
September 25, 2024 // America already has too few people working. If the employment rate were the same as it was before the COVID-19 pandemic, 2.9 million more people would be working today. The last thing Americans need is another regulation that makes it harder to make a living and to afford the rising cost of living. Although the Biden-Harris regulation has only been in effect since March, and it’s too early to fully study its effects, the employment-to-population ratio dropped by 0.3 percentage points between March and July. This decline represents a loss of 700,000 workers.
Op-Ed: Painting the Targets
September 24, 2024 // I next went looking for data about union density—the percentage of employees in an industry who are union members—in New York and California. For New York City, Hofstra University’s Center for the Study of Labor and Democracy put together this report showing industries that have seen declines in union membership. About half of the industries line up with those listed on the independent-contractor complaint form:
Commentary Is Big Labor Reducing Worker Wages, Opportunities for Growth?
September 3, 2024 // But the Biden-Harris administration’s embrace of Big Labor—as in big national labor organizations, as opposed to small, local unions—actually hasn’t helped workers as unionized workers’ wages have fallen behind the wages of nonunion workers over the past four years. Unlike small local unions that are in better positions to represent the unique needs of their members and that may even have productive relationships with management, the Big Labor movement is increasingly putting politics, power, and one-size-fits-all policies above the personal well-being of many workers.
Sean Higgins: Inflation has ruined progress on wages
September 2, 2024 // A new Labor Department rule promises to crack down on this alleged “worker misclassification.” The Federal Trade Commission also promised to crack down on the practice, though it hasn’t issued a rule to date. The Labor Department’s rule will make companies wary of hiring contract workers. Never mind that many workers prize the flexibility this freelance work allows. So workers have fewer options in the traditional jobs they could apply for, and fewer opportunities to earn a living through non-traditional methods such as freelancing. Wage growth has been largely wiped out by inflation. In short, the current administration couldn’t stick the landing for the economy as it recovered from the lockdown.
Commentary: California’s Unions Lost Their Long Battle Against Uber and Lyft
August 13, 2024 // The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that ridesharing drivers can be exempted from California's crackdown on independent contracting.