Peter Morgan is a student at Harvard Law School.
In this weekend’s news: the Minnesota legislature passes a labor bill offering protections for ride-share drivers, Bandcamp employees elect a union, and a gig company in San Francisco settles misclassification suits.
Following the passage of an omnibus labor bill on Tuesday, the Minnesota legislature passed a bill guaranteeing ride-share drivers a minimum wage and other protections. The bill, HF 2369, requires two new floors for driver pay: a per-mile minimum ($1.34, or $1.45 in the Twin Cities), and a per-minute minimum ($0.34). Governor Walz expressed some encouragement for the bill but still indicated he needed to discuss the matter further before signing it. Uber and Lyft responded to the bill’s passage with a statement suggesting it would reduce or shut down its operations in the state.
On Friday, employees at the music platform Bandcamp voted to form a union with OPEIU. Bandcamp, acquired by Epic Games in 2022, has positioned itself as a fan-driven digital music store that gives a greater share of their revenue to artists. The union, Bandcamp United, had cited union busting practices in its contest with Bandcamp and Epic. Upon the election, one of Bandcamp’s co-founders issued a joint statement with the union signaling their intent to work together and negotiate in good faith
Handy Technologies, a gig-working company that offers in-house services through an app, has agreed to pay $6 million to settle allegations that it misclassified its employees as independent contractors in violation of California’s employment classification laws. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office accused Handy of misclassifying approximately 25,000 workers in California between March 2017 and May 2023, depriving them of entitled workplace benefits. Under the settlement filed in San Francisco Superior Court, Handy will pay $4.8 million in restitution to its workers who performed cleaning and handyman services and an additional civil penalty of $1.2 million.
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January 29
Texas pauses H-1B hiring; NLRB General Counsel announces new procedures and priorities; Fourth Circuit rejects a teacher's challenge to pronoun policies.
January 28
Over 15,000 New York City nurses continue to strike with support from Mayor Mamdani; a judge grants a preliminary injunction that prevents DHS from ending family reunification parole programs for thousands of family members of U.S. citizens and green-card holders; and decisions in SDNY address whether employees may receive accommodations for telework due to potential exposure to COVID-19 when essential functions cannot be completed at home.
January 27
NYC's new delivery-app tipping law takes effect; 31,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and healthcare workers go on strike; the NJ Appellate Division revives Atlantic City casino workers’ lawsuit challenging the state’s casino smoking exemption.
January 26
Unions mourn Alex Pretti, EEOC concentrates power, courts decide reach of EFAA.
January 25
Uber and Lyft face class actions against “women preference” matching, Virginia home healthcare workers push for a collective bargaining bill, and the NLRB launches a new intake protocol.
January 22
Hyundai’s labor union warns against the introduction of humanoid robots; Oregon and California trades unions take different paths to advocate for union jobs.