Labor Day 2019

Last week the California State Assembly passed legislation to protect so called "gig workers."  Companies like Uber and Lyft had generated massive corporate valuations while taking no responsibility for the people who actually do the work.  Keep in mind that these companies are really nothing more than mobile phone apps without the drivers who make the app real.  We need real jobs for people not "gigs" that move money through workers to software developers.

The state assembly in California passed legislation on Wednesday that would require employers to recognize hundreds of thousands of gig workers as employees and could have far-reaching implications for contractors across the US.

If passed, the bill would represent a “turning of the tide” for contractors, said Veena Dubal, an associate professor of employment law at UC Hastings.

“The labor community has been really focusing for the last six years on the Uber-ization of the economy and the growth of unprotected labor,” she said. “This would give low-wage workers the protections they need and deserve.”

To be exempt from labor requirements, an employer would be required to prove the following: that its workers have complete control over how services are provided, that the services provided are not related to the employer’s main business, and that the worker is engaged in an “independently established” role.