IFPTE Requests U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Recognize Benefits of California AB 5 Law for People of Color, Women, and All Workers
This week, IFPTE leadership sent a letter to the California Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights requesting the Commission recognize that California Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), which was signed into California state law in 2019, protects labor rights of women, people of color, immigrant workers, and all workers by requiring a straightforward three-part test to make sure that independent contractors are not in fact employees who have been misclassified. Workers in California who would have been misclassified as independent contractors before AB 5 now have the protection of labor standards such as minimum wage, overtime pay, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, paid sick leave and family leave, and protection from discrimination and harassment.
The letter notes the that, “Misclassification is especially harmful to people of color and pervasive in labor-intensive, often dangerous occupations where women, immigrants, and low-wage workers of color are overrepresented. This includes industries like janitorial services, trucking and transportation, warehousing and logistics, hospitality, home care, and construction. Research has shown seven of eight high-misclassification occupations are held disproportionately by women and workers of color. When employers in these high-risk industries properly classify their workers as employees, many workers have been able to transform low-wage, precarious work into good-quality, stable jobs through collective bargaining. “
In recent years, the misclassification of employees as independent contractors has be also cost state and federal governments and the public. Companies that misclassify workers do not pay their share of Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance.
Employee misclassification — whether it’s misclassifying employees as independent contractors or management officials — is also a well-documented union avoidance strategy. IFPTE locals have seen private employers misclassify employees as managers to deprive workers ability to unionize and bargain collectively, most recently at ALDF United, an NPEU-Local 70 chapter. In the federal sector, NAIJ-Judicial Council 2 continues to face a retaliatory effort by the last administration to misclassify all NAIJ represented Immigration Judges as management in order to union-bust and silence the union.