Free Republic

Uber and Lyft are preparing to suspend their ride-hailing services in California beginning on Friday morning unless an appeals court rules at the last minute they cannot be forced to treat their drivers as employees, rather than independent contractors. Lyft in a blog post on Thursday said it would suspend its California operations at midnight. Uber in a blog post said it would have to temporarily shut down unless the appeals court intervenes.

A new wrinkle in the state’s coronavirus guidelines for bars, restaurants and similar venues in New York state prohibits them from offering live music that customers pay for separately. It seems to have suddenly popped up in the rules this week. It means no events where patrons buy tickets to see a performance (and) ban events with cover charges. And it prohibits venues from advertising live entertainment. The rule, posted in Q&A format on the State Liquor Authority web site, does allow what it calls “incidental” live music at venues that have permits for that. “This means that advertised and/or...

Ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft could be on the brink of shutting down in California after a judge ordered them to reclassify independent contractors as employees.  Why? All companies employing freelancers or individuals partaking in freelancing must comply with Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), the new anti-gig work law. It seems benign on the surface. Once readers peruse the bill’s language, they discover its nefarious goals.  It erroneously claims the “misclassification of workers as independent contractors has been a significant factor in the erosion of the middle class and the rise in income inequality.” And its federal companion bill, the PRO Act—supported by Democrats like...

Once upon a time, California was the Golden State, a shining example of how America should be run. Then the Democrats took over. Since then, the state has gone downhill fast. One of the worst things the state assembly did just last year was to pass legislation that effectively killed the “gig economy” (i.e., people who enjoy freelance work that enables them to control their own time). Now, thanks to that law, the lockdowns, and a problematic judicial decision, California has another hit coming: Uber’s pulling out. California’s AB 5 went into effect on January 1. Although ostensibly meant to...

Utilizing the new Presidential proclamations INA 212(f) and 215, prevents entry into the U.S. of certain non-immigrants. We think that the ban will be announced and come into force around June 15th, 2020.

Riding the momentum of the George Floyd riots, California's legislators have moved to ask the voters to repeal Proposition 209, the voter-passed measure to end affirmative action. According to the Sacramento Bee: More than two decades after California voters banned consideration of race in university admissions, public employment and contracting with Proposition 209, the state Assembly on Wednesday approved a measure that would ask voters to repeal the law. In a 58-9 initial vote, Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, secured the necessary two-thirds majority approval needed to send Assembly Constitutional Amendment 5 out of her house and to the state Senate. Only...

The moribund California Republican Party has been showing a few signs of life — not quite vigor, but a sense that it might limp around for another few years. The GOP snatched a congressional seat from the Democrats in a High-Desert and suburban Los Angeles district during a special election last month. The party’s registration levels remain low — five percentage points behind No Party Preference — but there’s renewed optimism that it might claw back a couple of the Southern California congressional seats it lost in the 2018 midterms. That’s thin gruel, perhaps, but after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s...

Californian independent contractors and freelancers got quite a shock Thursday evening when a state senator compared lost jobs to “lollipops.” Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson represents the 19th District in western Ventura County and Santa Barbara County. In a Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement meeting officials heard arguments for and against pushing forward SB 806 and SB990. The bills — put forth by Republican senators John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa) and Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) — aimed to immediately suspend and amend the disastrous AB5 legislation that killed independent contracting/freelance jobs across the state. Moorlach and Grove have been two politicians at the...

<p>A California assemblywoman has drawn outrage with a blunt attack on Tesla’s plans to quit the Golden state — tweeting, “F–k Elon Musk.”</p> <p>Lorena Gonzalez sent the tweet late Saturday night shortly after Musk, 48, said he would move his pioneering tech company to either Texas or Nevada because of an ongoing spat about reopening in California.</p>

Since California’s controversial anti-freelancer bill was signed into law in September 2019, one (not unpredictable) result has been staffing shortages in the healthcare industry, particularly in fields generally staffed by contractors or locum tenens providers: physicians assistants, nurses, nurse anesthetists, and respiratory therapists. As the Wuhan coronavirus made its way into California, advocates who’ve been pushing to fix/amend/repeal AB5 let Asm. Lorena Gonzalez, the bill’s author, know in no uncertain terms that unless enforcement of AB5 was suspended until the crisis passed Californians who needed care from these professionals would die. Gonzalez didn’t listen, and people are dying. The populations...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwpx-8Rl7lM

That’s how an article from the San Francisco Chronicle labels the new law. It’s been a rough start to 2020 for many workers in California. The new year brought the implementation of California’s new gig law, Assembly Bill 5 (AB5). Designed to target the gig economy, specifically companies such as Uber and Lyft that rely on an army of independent contractors to provide the company’s services to customers, AB5 will have broad-reaching effects upon gig work in California.   If companies are forced to reclassify more workers as employees, a huge swath of independent contractors will be laid off to...

The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) cautioned the New York State Assembly that pursuing legislation with a narrow definition of employees and independent contractors (IC) could greatly injure the travel agency community in America’s fourth largest state. New York State is considering legislation that would amend state labor laws, tightening the definition of independent contractors and full-time employees. Senate Bill S6699A is sponsored by Robert Jackson, (D, 31st District), and is currently in the Senate Rules Committee. No movement is expected on the proposed legislation until the state legislature reconvenes in January 2020. The Assembly’s version is Bill A8721A....

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....

Vox Media rooted for the passage of a California gig economy bill that is now forcing Vox to lay off hundreds of its own freelance workers. * Vox Media is laying off hundreds of freelance workers as California’s gig economy rights bill takes effect. * Vox cheered for the gig economy bill on its own news pages. Now it’s letting freelance workers go because of the new law. * This is a painfully ironic, cautionary tale against the broader labor movement represented by politicians like Sen. Elizabeth Warren. California AB-5 takes effect in 2020 after passage by the California state...

Key Points: Hundreds of Vox Media freelancers will lose their jobs in the coming months. Vox Media is preparing for a California law, Assembly Bill 5, which goes into effect in 2020 and forbids nonemployees from submitting more than 35 articles per year. SB Nation said Monday that it will move its California team blogs, which rely on contractors, to a new system run by SB Nation employees. ========================================================================= Hundreds of freelance writers at Vox Media, primarily those covering sports for the SB Nation site, will lose their jobs in the coming months as the company prepares for a California...

In mid-October, Upwork, a global freelancing platform where businesses and individual freelance workers connect and collaborate online, released the results of a new study on the gig economy, in conjunction with Freelancers Union, titled “Freelancing in America: 2017” — the most comprehensive measure of the U.S. independent workforce. This is the fourth annual study of the 57.3 million American freelance workers, which amounts to 36 percent of the U.S. workforce. This chunk of the world’s top economy contributes around $1.4 trillion per year, an almost 30 percent increase year-over-year, per Upwork’s report. The amazing takeaway from the world’s largest freelancing...

Whether by economic necessity or by choice, as many as one-third of American workers now find themselves piecing together two, three or more on- demand opportunities to make a living. It's called The Gig Economy, or the Sharing Economy. Yet Washington mostly has remained on the sidelines as the U.S. economy, its workforce and the work place, have undergone perhaps the most dramatic transformation in decades. Senator Warner, a former business executive, is committed to bringing this conversation to Washington, working with his colleagues, stakeholders, and the growing “gig economy” workforce, to put forward practical solutions to keep up with...