Posted on 12/23/2019 4:28:36 PM PST by karpov
A nonprofit legal foundation is suing California on behalf of freelance workers who say the state's recently passed Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) will destroy their livelihoods. Set to take effect on January 1, 2020, AB5 will make it illegal for contractors who reside in California to create more than 35 pieces of content in a year for a single company, unless the outlet hires them as an employee.
"By enforcing the 35-submission limit, Defendant, acting under color of state law, unconstitutionally deprives Plaintiffs' members of their freedom of speech as protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution," states the lawsuit, which was filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation.
The bill's pending implementation has wreaked havoc on publications that rely heavily on California freelancers. Just last week, Vox Media announced it will not be renewing the contracts of around 200 journalists who write for the sports website SB Nation. Instead, the company will replace many of those contractors with 20 part-time and full-time employees. Rev, which provides transcription services, and Scripted, which connects freelance copywriters with people who need their services, also notified their California contractors that they would no longer give them work.
"Companies can simply blacklist California writers and work with writers in other states, and that's exactly what's happening," Alisha Grauso, an entertainment journalist and the co-leader of California Freelance Writers United (CAFWU), tells Reason. "I don't blame them."
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), the architect of AB5, has heard these stories. "I'm sure some legit freelancers lost substantial income," she tweeted in the wake of Vox's announcement, "and I empathize with that especially this time of year. But Vox is a vulture."
"These were never good jobs," Gonzalez said earlier this month. "No one has ever suggested that, even freelancers."
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
I’ve heard this is expected to hit Uber drivers hard.
Those jobs aren't coming back!
CalEXIT
A LOT of insider selling going on right now on Uber.
This also hurts musicians who typically work per gig as do comedians.
But that won’t stop them from their ultra lib viewpoint
“I’ve heard this is expected to hit Uber drivers hard.”
My understanding of the purpose of the law was to force Uber and Lyft to hire their drivers. This forces Uber and Lyft to pay the taxes on the income directly, which is done weekly or biweekly instead of when/if the contractors file them. One of the driver’s of this is to improve the flow of tax revenues. Another is to force the new “employers” to pay benefits, many of which are really taxes, like “unemployment insurance.”
I tried to work for several small companies in the nineties and was told that they had been sued by the IRS and forced to sign a contract with the IRS saying they would not employ contractors. The government’s issue was getting a smoother flow of revenue. The IRS specifically targeted companies of a certain size that made it profitable to go after them, but companies that were too small to fight back. The contract was because what the IRS was doing was not legal. The IRS’s leverage was they seized the bank accounts of those companies and forced a settlement. The alternative was going out of business. Since I got this story from several companies I tend to believe it.
Government is the mafia with a better retirement plan and dental coverage.
Sounds unconstitutional on many grounds. And immoral, and unamerican.
I presume this refers to submissions written under hire, and not submissions written freelance and sold on spec but who knows.
*spit*
And it will impact musicians who play PT at wineries and restaurants
What we are seeing is a political party with no restraints.
The watch dog media are lap dogs, never calling out the Democrats on anything.
The Republican party in California, does one even exist?
The problem for these people is that with one party rule there is no one for them to turn to. They still have the choice to leave, while they can.
What would these political hacks know from jobs? Good or bad?
This law will do for Freelancers what the $15. WAGE campaigns did for part time restaurant workers. It put a lot of them out of work.
It usually takes SO MUCH for a person to change their politics or switch parties.
But honest, if the dems had decide to put up someone SANE and Patriotic in 2008, they might have grabbed some R voters who were sick of the Bushes et. al. always screwing Americans first.
Imagine if a pro American jobs, pro tariffs, pro border dem had run in 2008.
Off course they didn’t do that and they went even FURTHER LEFT.
But Trump is actually doing some things that were on the dem’s platform once. Before they went completely psycho.
And I think we could take 5 percent or more of Ds away for good.
Or I could be completely wrong :)
Merry Christmas!
Hey Biotch. Now they have NO JOBS!! But, that's your objective, isn't it?
This also hurts musicians, who typically work per gig as do comedians.
We know 2 couples and a widower who do gigs as indies. It supplements their income and enables them to live a better life style.
Government is the mafia with a better retirement plan and dental coverage.
—
The first 4 words of your sentence are definitely true.
How will it impact musicians? If you already provide a service and have employees that do a similar task any contractors you hire will now have to be hired as employees.
In other words, if you run a paper or magazine and you have a writing staff, any freelancers you buy material from would have to be hired as employees. Same for trucking companies. They have trucks and do cartage but if they take on a job requiring more trucks and drivers, they may no longer hire independents unless they hire them as employees.
I do not understand your idea how that would affect a winery. They do not provide entertainment as a matter of course. They do not have full time musicians and entertainers in their employ. Now a vineyard that has laborers may run afoul of the law if they hire a picking or pruning contractor as those tasks may be something they do as a matter of course.
Regardless, it is the dumbest law ever.
Interestingly, it doesn’t apply to the state (few laws ever do). I work as a Cal Fire vender. If the demand for dozer operators becomes such that they do not have enough, my employer and I are contracted to operate tractors on a fire. We do the same thing as firefighters, under the guidance of a trained firefighter, but are contractors. Now no one will ever sue over this as we can make more than a firefighter on the same job.
Speaking of laws that don’t apply to the state, Cal Fire firefighters have to be on duty for 72 hours before overtime pay kicks in. It never kicks in for a contractor. It kicks in at 8 hours for everyone else.
Trump should campaign in California on this issue.
The law impacts us because we play for the same wineries or restaurants more then 35 times a year. The law said “35 units”. they would have to hire you either PT. Considering we make anywhere from 75-125 an hour per person, the PT work would be a reduced wage no doubt. So we couldn’t afford to play for them as many of us do this full time, meaning we play 4-7 gigs per week at different places
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