September 21st 2021
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At a business-journalism conference yesterday, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh spoke out strongly against worker misclassification. Secretary Walsh referred to misclassifying gig workers as one of the "most serious issues" undermining the economy, denying workers...
The US Labor Department is preparing to release a new federal framework for worker classification. As Bloomberg reports, DOL received approval from the White House regulatory office to publish the proposed rule in the Federal Registrar for public comment. The rule...
The University of Kansas Graduate Teaching Assistant’s Coalition (GTAC) will join university students on a Labor Day strike today to demand the school close due to rising Covid-19 cases on campus. KU is one of a few major universities to allow its students to...
On March 3, the Third Circuit vacated and remanded a district court ruling that UberBlack drivers are independent contractors and not employees. The unanimous opinion points to disputed factual issues that are key to determining worker classification and highlights...
Yesterday a three-member panel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) unanimously concluded that the Board lacked jurisdiction over a labor dispute arising out of operations at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Carriers at O’Hare contract with outside...
The New York Times reported yesterday on a letter that a group of Democratic senators sent to Google urging the company’s CEO to convert many of its temporary and full-time contract workers to full-time employees. Citing reporting from earlier this year, the letter...
California Governor Jerry Brown just signed a new law holding retail companies jointly liable for labor violations suffered by truckers who are directly managed by port trucking providers. The legislation follows growing awareness of rampant labor abuse in...
A local woman has had a hard time finding work, but is desperate for income, and hears from a friend about a business opportunity which allows her to work from home. Excited about the prospect, she spends $99 in order to get a starter kit, which allows her to sell...
At the end of February, the Supreme Court granted cert. in New Prime, Inc. v. Oliveira. In so doing, the Court added to the list of cases that examine how and to what extent the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) applies in the employment context (see our coverage of...
In the first gig economy worker classification case to go to trial, a federal magistrate judge ruled yesterday that a GrubHub worker was an independent contractor under California law. The decision could have ramifications in suits against other gig companies like...
Tax reform is in the air. On Thursday, November 9, Senate Republicans released a Description of the Chairman’s Mark (prepared by the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT)), which contains in substance the Senate version of proposed tax reform legislation. Among other things, that JCT description stated that the bill would clarify the treatment of many workers as independent contractors by providing a safe harbor that, if satisfied, would guarantee such treatment. But in the modification to the Chairman’s Mark released on November 14, that safe harbor provision was stricken from the Senate bill.
Congress may be open to revisiting the classification of gig economy workers as employees or independent contractors under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Per Bloomberg BNA, "the head of the House workforce committee May 3 told an audience of innovators that she...