The Biden administration’s proposal could classify gig workers as employees

The US Department of Labor has proposed a caller regularisation that could marque it harder for companies similar Uber and Lyft to classify gig workers arsenic autarkic contractors. Under the projected rule, gig workers could summation caller benefits and protections, including minimum wage and overtime.

The connection reverses the Trump Administration’s rule that made it safer to classify gig workers arsenic autarkic contractors. The DOL withdrew the regularisation past year aft President Joe Biden came into office, stating it was “in tension” with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 — but until today, there’s been nary wide replacement.

To find whether a idiosyncratic should beryllium classified arsenic an worker oregon autarkic contractor, the DOL present says it volition usage the “department’s attack with courts’ FLSA mentation and the economical world test,” which considers however agelong an idiosyncratic has worked for an agency, their relation astatine the company, and “opportunities for nett and loss,” among different factors.

“While autarkic contractors person an important relation successful our economy, we person seen successful galore cases that employers misclassify their employees arsenic autarkic contractors, peculiarly among our nation’s astir susceptible workers,” Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said successful a statement. “Misclassification deprives workers of their national labour protections, including their close to beryllium paid their full, legally earned wages.”

The regularisation isn’t acceptable successful chromatic conscionable yet and, arsenic The New York Times notes, volition instrumentality months to beryllium finalized. Even then, states volition inactive beryllium escaped to acceptable their ain rules connected the matter. In 2020, Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash secured a triumph with the transition of Prop 22, which exempts app-based transportation drivers and ride-hailing providers from employment presumption successful California. In 2021, the California Superior Court ruled that the instrumentality was unconstitutional, though an manufacture radical backed by Uber and Lyft has since appealed the decision.