As reported by NBC Think: “Don’t enact sweeping legislation that squashes the vast majority of independent contractors and call it part of your plan ‘to create an economy where everyone can succeed.’ It’s a great slogan, and it plays well on a Twitter video, but it’s hypocrisy as long as the ABC test is part of your plan to do it.” … Read more …
Category: Articles and Op-Eds
Opposition From Freelancers Saddles PRO Act Efforts
As reported by Law360: “A contingent of freelance writers spooked by the aftermath of California’s worker misclassification rewrite have launched a lobbying blitz against the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, complicating the long-shot labor law overhaul’s path to passage.” … Read more …
PPP vs. PRO: A textbook case of cognitive dissonance in Washington
As published in The Hill: The truth is that Americans like me need to be saved not by, but from deeply misguided ABC Test legislation. Any lawmaker who agrees with making PPP better for small-business owners now, and who agrees that nonemployer firms like mine are important to the U.S. economy going forward, must also vote no on ABC Test laws like the PRO Act. … Read more …
“The federal labor legislation that would kill my livelihood”
As reported in The Week: “If the PRO Act passes, the ABC test will not protect me as a worker. It will harm me. It will derail my career and drastically reduce my income. And it will do the same for millions of other Americans in the many lines of work I’ve mentioned here — including many medical workers filling in at hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases.” … Read more …
The PRO Act is Becoming Labor’s Amateur Hour
As reported in Forbes: “The claim that this move has no meaning outside of the National Labor Relations Act is either a misunderstanding of the larger context or disingenuous deception. … Shrugging off the personal concerns of potentially many millions of people, numbers of whom have shown themselves capable of running political and media campaigns to turn back what are attacks on their livelihoods, is unnecessarily building legions of enemies of those who were previously friends.” … Read more …
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) acknowledges “independent contractors are not all the same”
As reported in The Washington Post: “We know that independent contractors are not all the same — some are misclassified or would prefer to be treated as full-time employees, while others genuinely prefer to be independent contractors and use this kind of work to supplement other employment,” Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.) said in a statement. “My position has simply been that a one-size-fits-all model that locks you into benefits with one employer might not work for everyone and, frankly, doesn’t work all that well right now for people that want to either try something new or start their own business. We should be testing different strategies at the local level and uncovering what works best for workers long-term.” … Read more …
Reclassifying Gig Workers is a Bad Idea
Ron Busby, president and CEO of the U.S. Black Chambers, writes in New Jersey’s Asbury Park Press: “There’s an ill-conceived notion that reclassifying these independent contractors/gig workers as employees is good for workers and for small businesses. It is not, as the good people in the great state of California demonstrated when they rejected reclassification efforts there.” … Read more …
Stop Drafting Independent Contractor Legislation without Giving Independent Contractors a Seat at the Table
As reported by Law360: “The position in the Biden plan on independent contractors is not only confusing but also seems to have ignored the position of one of the key stakeholders: the freelancers themselves. Seeking to change the test in order to curtail independent contractor relationships and instead promote the employment of freelancers appears to be out of touch with the overwhelming preference of those service providers.” … Read more …
California’s Prop 22 Victory is a Stinging rebuke of AB5, which tried to force companies using independent contractors to reclassify them as employees
As reported by NBC News THINK: “The passage of Prop 22 teaches us that if lawmakers won’t listen to the valid concerns of independent contractors the easy way, by giving us an equal seat at the table and crafting reasonable legislation that protects us along with traditional employees, they will be forced to listen the hard way, as laws like AB5 are publicly gutted at the ballot box.” … Read more …
What Uber, Lyft Prop 22 win could mean for the future of all freelance work
As reported by CNBC, “The overriding message that Prop 22 sends is that one-size-fits-all legislation which lumps all freelance professions together doesn’t work and won’t be popular with voters.” … Read more …
Fight For Freelancers USA 