Posts tagged self-employed
BOARD DEFIES FEDERAL APPEALS COURT IN DECISION THAT THREATENS FREELANCERS, INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS ACROSS NATION
June 15, 2023 // “In today’s decision, the Board reinstates a test for determining employment status that was explicitly rejected by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit. The Board’s decision will force workers into work arrangements they do not want – all for the sake of giving unions new potential members. With this decision, the Board has chosen to ignore the concerns raised by the employer and freelance communities, and its actions threaten to destabilize a number of industries and deprive many independent contractors of the flexible work methods and entrepreneurial opportunities they value. “The Board’s actions are all part of the Biden administration’s war against small businesses and entrepreneurs and will invite confusion and litigation. As we explained in our amicus brief, the NLRB should continue to follow the standard set in SuperShuttle DFW and emphasize the significance of entrepreneurial opportunity when considering a worker’s proper classification.”
Independent Contracting – Proposed Department of Labor Rule
October 19, 2022 // The Biden Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a new independent contractor rule on October 11, 2022 to address what Secretary Walsh deems “misclassification” of workers. This would replace a current DOL rule from the Trump administration that went into effect in March 2021 – a rule which the Biden administration improperly attempted to rescind that provided clarity to the “economic realities” test used to determine the employment status of workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).
About one-in-six U.S. journalists at news outlets are part of a union; many more would join one if they could
August 9, 2022 // The desire to join a union is much more prevalent among younger journalists than among their older peers: 77% of full- or part-time journalists ages 18 to 29 are either already a member of a union at their news organization (20%) or would join a union if it were available to them (57%). This is nearly twice the share among journalists 65 and older (41%) – 13% of whom report already being in a union and 28% of whom say they would join one if it were available to them. Differences also emerge by journalists’ gender, race and ethnicity. About six-in ten journalists who are women (63%) say they are either currently a union member or would join one if available, compared with 52% of journalists who are men. Black, Hispanic and Asian journalists are all more likely than White journalists to say they are either in a union or would join one if it were available to them.
Fraud had ‘significant’ role in $163 billion leak from pandemic-era unemployment system
May 30, 2022 // More than $163 billion in benefits likely leaked from the unemployment system during the pandemic, with a “significant portion” attributable to fraud, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report.
Commentary: One proposal to modernize labor laws would benefit women; another could set them back decades
May 5, 2022 // The PRO Act seeks to regress to the 1950s workplace that denied workers the flexibility needed to balance work/life demands. The ERA would preserve the gains women have made and provide important rights of autonomy, privacy, and opportunity for women and men alike.