From today’s Washington Post:
A vast array of U.S. businesses escalated their legal battle against the Biden administration’s new worker protections Tuesday, arguing that the federal rules — meant to help provide better pay — are costly, improper and could decimate the gig economy.
The legal challenge could prevent more ride-sharing drivers, home-health aides, janitors and truckers from being treated as employees, rather than independent contractors, which would ultimately deny these workers access to a minimum wage and overtime pay.
The dispute concerns one of the more significant regulatory actions taken by the Labor Department since President Biden took office pledging to reinvigorate workers’ rights. Finalized in January, the government’s new rules spell out the process by which companies must determine how a worker is classified, and as a result, the benefits they should receive.
But many of the companies that rely on independent contractors — from delivery apps like DoorDash to lesser-known firms that retain janitors, truckers and others — have fiercely opposed the Biden administration’s approach. They have argued that the rules put pressure on them to treat more of their workers as employees, which could carry steep costs they can’t afford, potentially even forcing them to slash their labor force.
With the new rules set to take effect next week, these industries banded together to file a broadened and revised version of a previously pending lawsuit Tuesday, warning that the Labor Department threatens to “irreparably harm not just companies employing independent contractors nationwide, but the workers themselves.”
Read the complete story here.