A group representing gig workers slammed a House bill it mentioned would misclassify workers in a means that would deny them fundamental labor protections.
The Worker Power Coalition, which represents 24 million workers nationwide, known as the Worker Flexibility and Choice Act an “anti-worker proposal intended to further endanger already vulnerable gig economy workers.”
The proposal was launched final week by Reps. Henry Cueller (D-Texas) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.). It would permit impartial workers to “voluntarily” enter into “flexibility agreements,” in response to the bill’s textual content.
Supporters of the proposal, together with a group that represents gig corporations akin to Uber and Lyft, mentioned the bill goals to strike a stability with the flexibleness agreements.
Under the agreements, workers would get rights offered to staff below office privateness, anti-discrimination, harassment, retaliation and security legal guidelines. But they would not be thought of staff for federal tax functions or entitled to full protections below federal labor legal guidelines, together with for minimal wage or extra time.
The proposal would additionally supersede state legal guidelines, together with in California, which put in place the ABC check to find out if workers are staff or impartial contractors. The check presumes a employee is taken into account an worker and never a contractor until three standards concerning the place, together with establishing that the employee is doing work separate from the hiring entity’s common course of enterprise, are met.
“Uber and Lyft poured $200 million into Prop 22 in California to take away our rights to unemployment benefits, workplace safety and sick time. All during a global pandemic,” mentioned Nicole Moore, a part-time Lyft driver and the president of the group Rideshare Drivers United, referring to the businesses’ profitable marketing campaign on the state’s Proposition 22 poll measure within the 2020 election. The measure sought to exclude app-based workers from worker rights below California regulation.
“Now they’re trying to do it federally,” Moore added. “Legalizing the misclassification of app-based workers would deny hundreds of thousands of workers essential workplace protections, and amount to billions of dollars in corporate handouts to a multibillion-dollar industry.”
Uber and Lyft haven’t publicly commented on the proposal. The corporations directed The Hill to the Coalition for Workforce Innovation, a group each Uber and Lyft are members of, for remark.
Evan Armstrong, chair of the Coalition for Workforce Innovation, mentioned the proposal gives “clarity and rules of the road for independent workers and businesses.”
“The bipartisan bill strikes a balance to promote independent work while ensuring more options for benefits, support and protections,” Armstrong mentioned in a press release.
Moore mentioned the bill would result in misclassifying workers past app-based jobs as effectively.
Ryan Kekeris, spokesperson for the Union of Painters and Allied Trades, additionally criticized the proposal. He mentioned workers throughout the ending trades trade, together with painters, glass installers and industrial glaziers, have confronted misclassification points earlier than the rise of the app-based work.
The proposal launched within the House would “give companies a path to reverting back” almost 90 years, to a time earlier than the National Labor Relations Act was created.
“We don’t see going back as an acceptable piece of legislation for workers,” he mentioned.
The Worker Power Coalition mentioned lawmakers ought to as an alternative give attention to pushing ahead the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would classify some gig workers as staff to present them the suitable to kind unions.
The PRO Act handed within the House, however was blocked by Republicans within the Senate. President Biden additionally mentioned he supported the measure in his State of the Union Address.
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