California (Quietly) Limits Unpopular Law That Restricted Freelancers
California Gov. Gavin Newsom quietly signed a law on Sept. 4 repealing parts of an unpopular law that put independent contractors in the state out of work and limited the earnings of freelancers, including visual artists, musicians, writers, translators, and film support crews by classifying them as employees.
The enactment of the new measure, which came after months of political and legal pressure from the trucking industry, companies such as Uber and Postmates, and groups such as the American Society of Journalists and Authors Inc. and the National Press Photographers Association, is a rare defeat for the labor movement in solidly progressive California.
The new law, known as AB 2257, passed both chambers of the state legislature unanimously on Aug. 31.
The Democratic governor announced on his website Sept. 4 that he had signed the measure but offered no explanation for why he had done so. The governor’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.
The new law took effect immediately upon signing.
AB 2257 amended AB 5, which attempted to determine who is a contractor and who is an employee and forced companies to reclassify their freelancers as employees. The new law provides greater flexibility to freelancers.
When AB 5 took effect Jan. 1, that law made it hard for so-called gig-economy companies to classify people who work for them as independent contractors instead of employees. The idea being the measure was to prevent freelancers from being unfairly exploited by employers.
Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat, wrote AB5 to implement a 2018 California Supreme Court decision known as Dynamex Operations West Inc. v. Superior Court, that deemed many freelancers to be employees, a status that entitled them to the minimum wage, overtime pay, unemployment insurance, and health benefits.
Employees in California are entitled to benefits not available to contractors, such as the minimum wage, health insurance, and paid time off. AB 5 was strongly backed by labor organizations critical of hard-to-unionize freelance jobs. Unions hoped the law would give them an edge in recruiting new members.
AB 5 was enacted ostensibly to help workers by preventing their “misclassification” as non-employees.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/california-limits-unpopular-law-that-restricted-freelancer-workers_3490037.html