Posts tagged Proposition 22
A Win For California’s App-Based Drivers
March 17, 2023 // In an ironic twist, California Attorney General Rob Bonta argued in favor of Prop. 22 to the Court of Appeals even though he voted for AB5 when he was an assemblyman in the California state legislature and was personally opposed to Prop. 22. The state correctly asserted that the will of the voters should prevail, and the Court of Appeals agreed. Former assemblywoman and author of AB5 cried foul about Monday’s ruling, claiming the “system is broken” and that the appeals court “chose to stand with powerful corporations over working people, allowing companies to buy their way out of our state’s labor laws.” Gonzalez, who now heads the California Labor Federation representing 1,200 unions in the state, has no such concerns about the millions of independent contractors and small businesses adversely affected by her disastrous law. From transcribers and translators to sign-language interpreters, videographers, wedding planners, regional theaters, pharmacists, the independent film industry, and more, AB5 has wielded a wrecking ball to the independent workforce in California, particularly impacting female entrepreneurs who have been disproportionately harmed by the law.
DOL Nominee Julie Su An Aggressive Enforcer, Inept Manager
March 8, 2023 // She was also a supporter of the state’s disastrous AB5 law, which was intended to force rideshare companies and other so-called gig economy businesses to treat their workers as regular employees rather than short-term workers. Su tweeted in 2019 that the law was “about preserving labor standards that are key to quality jobs in California.” There was little evidence the law wanted by or beneficial to rideshare drivers. Meanwhile numerous other traditional freelancing jobs were disrupted by the law, forcing state legislators to amend the bill to carve out many professions. Eventually state voters would pass Proposition 22 which exempted rideshare drivers from the law, stripping out the main thing its advocates wanted. The law contributed to California lagging behind the rest of the nation in jobs during the pandemic. Ironically, Su, should she be confirmed, will have another shot at it. The department already has a rulemaking in the works to go after employers for “worker misclassification” i.e., classifying them as freelancers rather than regular employees for whom the company must pay overtime and unemployment –a national version of AB5, with all the problems of that law.
Opinion: Biden must reverse course and protect independent contractors
June 17, 2022 // With this new rulemaking period, the administration has a chance to turn the page on its stridently anti-independent contractor stance. Any new rules should protect the right of Americans to make a living outside of a traditional employment relationship. Under current law, there are two ways an individual can have a relationship with someone that is paying you. The first is an employee, where a person that is paying the individual has total control over how, when, and where the work is being done.
Opinion: Time for a Law That Puts Workers, Not Unions, First
March 25, 2022 // The Employee Rights Act of 2022, unlike Biden’s PRO Act, encourages innovation and job flexibility.