News & Commentary

November 28, 2016

Adi Kamdar

Adi Kamdar is a student at Harvard Law School.

Following last week’s nationwide injunction against the Department of Labor’s overtime rule, the Washington Post editorial board urged Congress to make the rule law. The board noted that five Republican senators earlier proposed a law phasing in the overtime rule’s higher salary threshold over a period of four years, with opt-outs for nonprofits and state governments.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said today that global growth will grow under the Trump administration, pointing at lower taxes and increased infrastructure spending, according to Fortune. As growth increases, OECD predicted unemployment will drop from 4.9% to 4.5% in 2018.

Tomorrow’s a big day for Uber: first, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) will hear arguments in a case that will affect Uber’s status across the continent, the New York Times reports. The case was filed by the Spanish taxi association, which claimed unfair competition. The Spanish judge referred the case to the ECJ to determine whether Uber is a transportation service, and thus subject to Europe’s strict labor laws, or a digital platform. Second, hundreds of Uber drivers are joining Fight for $15 protests tomorrow across the United States, Reuters reports.

The gig economy is looking to state legislation to settle disputes around benefits, according to Reuters. In New York, the online home cleaning company Handy has proposed a draft bill that “would establish guidelines for a portable benefits plan for New York workers at gig-economy companies.” Portable benefits are tied to the worker, not the hiring company. The bill classifies such workers as independent contractors as long as the companies they work for reach certain standards: companies are required to contribute 2.5% of each job’s fee toward an individual worker’s account, which she could use to purchase benefits.

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