The truck drivers were the first group to take aim at AB5 through a lawsuit, and the freelancers followed suit. Soon before the clock strikes midnight to ring in the new year, two giants of the gig economy fired their own...more
The clock is steadily ticking towards midnight on December 31, and once the illuminated cluster of grapes drops from the Temecula Civic Center clock tower (this is actually a thing) and rings in the new year in California,...more
12/27/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Journalists ,
Misclassification ,
State Labor Laws ,
Writers
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission yesterday withdrew its 1997 policy statement that had disapproved of the practice of requiring workers to enter into arbitration agreements to resolve workplace discrimination...more
12/18/2019
/ ADEA ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay Act ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Title VII
Seattle just joined New York City as one of the few locations in the country to pass minimum wage legislation for ride-share drivers, the city’s latest attempt to regulate the gig economy. Under the “Fair Share” program...more
We’ve written about the “Future of Work” efforts recently undertaken by Congress – a series of hearings aimed at discussing various issues that we can expect to impact workplaces in the near future. And according to a recent...more
It’s that time of the year again. Cyber Monday — the first work day following the Thanksgiving break — is expected break online shopping records. In 2018, retailers saw a 20% increase in Cyber Monday revenue as consumers...more
We’re now just a few weeks away from the nation’s most stringent independent contractor misclassification law taking effect in California. But if a group of truck drivers have their way, the law will stall out before it ever...more
11/19/2019
/ Commerce Clause ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Drivers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Newsom ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Injunctions ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Misclassification ,
Preemption ,
State Labor Laws ,
Supremacy Clause ,
Trucking Industry
Tastes may differ, but there can be no dispute that the music video for “November Rain,” the ultimate power ballad by the ultimate Hair Nation band of the 1980s, Guns N’ Roses, is the best video ever created. It’s like a...more
11/4/2019
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Policies ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Non-Exempt Employees ,
Paid Leave ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Risk Mitigation ,
Severe Weather ,
Unpaid Leave ,
Vacation Leave ,
Wage and Hour ,
Weather Policy
When California’s AB 5 was signed into law last month, a chorus of voices decried the fact that it could radically change the gig economy as we know it. Many contended that the average app-based driver enjoyed being an...more
10/31/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Definition ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
State Labor Laws ,
Transportation Industry ,
Wage and Hour
Lawmakers have begun to hold a series of hearings to discuss the “future of work,” and it may be no surprise that the two political parties have differing ideas about how that should impact the gig economy. The House...more
10/30/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Regulations ,
OSHA ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Gig economy businesses across the country looked to what happened in California this year and cringed. Other states looked there and were intrigued. After California passed the most aggressive independent contract statute in...more
A Massachusetts federal court just ruled that gig workers cannot escape arbitration provisions by claiming they are exempt transportation workers. The September 30 decision in Austin v. DoorDash marks the second win for gig...more
10/18/2019
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Interstate Commerce ,
New Prime v Oliveira ,
SCOTUS ,
Transportation Industry
Taking a three-year look back at the Supreme Court’s workplace law decisions gives you the sense that the exciting cases only come down every other year. In the ho-hum term that ended in 2017, the Court handled relatively...more
10/7/2019
/ ADEA ,
Age Discrimination ,
But For Causation ,
DACA ,
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gender Identity ,
LGBTQ ,
Race Discrimination ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Title VII ,
Transgender ,
Trump Administration
You’ve been waiting quite a long time for a critical ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the very fabric of the gig economy model – and you’re going to have wait even longer. The appeals court just announced late...more
California Governor Gavin Newsom wasted little time by signing AB 5 into law yesterday, and his signing statement should cause quite a few eyebrows to be raised. It was no surprise that he signed the bill into effect; he said...more
9/19/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Newsom ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
NLRA ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unions
Chalk up in the win column for businesses. On August 29th, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that companies found to have misclassified workers as contractors will not automatically face liability for an unfair...more
A California State Senate leader may have thrown cold water on the idea that we will see a 2019 legislative solution to the misclassification debate that would preserve the gig economy workforce model as we know it, but her...more
With just a one-page, single-paragraph Order, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday provided the faintest glimmer of hope for gig economy businesses everywhere – but especially for those in California. The federal...more
The news that President Trump selected Eugene Scalia to take over as Labor Secretary late last week caught some employers by surprise; after all, it was just a week ago that we were analyzing the track record of the...more
7/22/2019
/ Administrative Appointments ,
Affirmative Action ,
Data Collection ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Labor Policies ,
Medical Leave ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Presidential Nominations ,
Secretary of Labor ,
Trump Administration ,
Wage & Hour Division (WHD)
When the news broke Friday afternoon that Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta would be resigning from his post, employers across the country began wondering what this transition would mean for them. You may have even heard...more
7/15/2019
/ Affirmative Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
EEO-1 ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
Filing Deadlines ,
Foreign Workers ,
Immigration Enforcement ,
Joint Employers ,
OFCCP ,
OLMS ,
OSHA ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Resignation ,
Secretary of Labor ,
USCIS ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Safety
A few months ago, Kamala Harris unveiled an ambitious plan to introduce stricter legal measures to force employers to comply with pay equity standards. Fellow senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren has...more
7/8/2019
/ Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Pay ,
Federal Contractors ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Low-Wage Workers ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Political Campaigns ,
Political Candidates ,
Race Discrimination ,
Wage and Hour
In a development many wouldn’t find surprising, a collation of forces announced this week that they would like to see ride-sharing drivers for Uber and Lyft receive a guaranteed base wage, flexible benefits, and a new...more
Earlier this week, the California Assembly overwhelmingly passed AB5 – a measure that would codify the ABC test introduced to the state in last year’s Dynamex decision, and make life even more challenging for the average gig...more
There’s a great story in today’s Bloomberg Law by Genevieve Douglas highlighting the recent trend of states permitting self-employed workers – such as gig economy contractors – to enjoy the fruits of a paid family leave...more
If a prominent candidate for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president has her way, federal pay equity law would be strengthened to add some real teeth—and the spoils of the increased financial penalties would fund a...more