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The Fight is On! Tell congress to leave independent contractors and class action lawsuits out of the political agenda
As you may have heard, there is a massive $3.5 trillion dollar “infrastructure” bill being negotiated in Congress right now. While it is being called an infrastructure bill, it is really a vehicle for the Congressional majority to make significant changes to employment law and our social safety net.
What little the government has revealed about the contents of this bill is very concerning – the bill of course includes an increase to the corporate tax rate, from 21% back up to about 26.5%. However, other more troubling provisions are also present. It appears that the House Majority are using the reconciliation bill to pass portions of the politically infeasible PRO Act, which stalled out in the Senate earlier this year. The markup out of the House Education and Labor Committee included a provision, detailed below, which would effectively ban the use of Independent Contractors and would remove the ability of employers to use arbitration agreements.
The provision in question would create new civil penalties (up to $50,000 per violation) for a set of “unfair labor practices” (ULPs), which would now include misclassifying workers as independent contractors. The bill would make it unlawful to “communicate or misrepresent to an employee… that such employee is excluded from the definition of employee”. In other words, the law would make it a crime, punishable by a $50,000 fine, simply to communicate to an employee that they are not an employee. Business executives and directors could be held personally liable for these alleged ULPs. Additionally, the law forbids the use of employee agreements designed to prevent class action lawsuits.
This provision attempts to do the same thing the PRO Act was designed to achieve: make the penalty for IC misclassification so high ($50,000 per IC) that employers are scared to use ICs, which then allows unions to try to unionize the drivers who are made employees due to the employer’s fear of the penalty. Today, we ask that you directly contact your Congressional representatives to stress how bad this change to our longstanding legal frameworks would be. We know that Independent Contractors are an important part of the US workforce, and in general, they prefer being ICs to traditional employment!
Please use the information below to impact the government’s plans and help our industry survive the impacts of this shortsighted “infrastructure” package!
Tell congress to leave independent contractors and class action lawsuits out of the political agenda
As you may have heard, there is a massive $3.5 trillion dollar “infrastructure” bill being negotiated in Congress right now. While it is being called an infrastructure bill, it is really a vehicle for the Congressional majority to make significant changes to employment law and our social safety net.
How to have an impact – CALL these Congressional offices TODAY!
Use the language below to succinctly make our case.
Introduction: My name is ______ and I am an employee/owner of _____. My company is part of the courier industry, and we rely on Independent Contractors as an important part of our workforce. Our drivers like having the choice to work as Independent Contractors and most prefer it to employment. We also rely on Arbitration agreements to quickly and fairly resolve legal issues.
Make the ask: I am asking you for your help to ensure that any reconciliation bill which passes does not include any provisions that would jeopardize the ability of Independent Contractors to find work in their industry or to increase Class Action lawsuits by killing arbitration agreements.
Conclude: Thank you for your attention to this problem. I hope Congress will not act to remove choice from America’s logistics drivers!
Please circulate this call to action to your colleagues and enlist their support. With more people contacting Washington, our chances for success increases.
Thank you for your assistance and support in this matter. CLDA Government Affairs staff will continue our work to represent your interests in Washington and will keep you informed of our progress.
Last month, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation considered and overwhelmingly approved the Surface Transportation Investment Act of 2021. If passed by the full Senate and then reconciled with the House companion bill, this legislation would become the new transportation safety title to a reauthorization bill.
At a high level, the bill spends $78 billion over five years on surface transportation programs, including $13 billion on safety, and would be a significant increase over the previous reauthorization (the FAST Act) in 2015.
Although the highlighted provisions below only apply to vehicles over 10,000 lbs. GVWR, we know many if not most couriers have at least some of those, which is why we are providing this update.
We also note that this legislation does not include an arbitrary increase to minimum insurance requirements, as is the case in the House bill. In coalition with the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and many others, CLDA has been working aggressively to prevent passage of this increase.
CLDA is continuing to closely monitor the progress of the PRO Act as it moves through the House of Representatives. Yesterday, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21) gave testimony before the House Rules Committee on her proposed amendment to the PRO Act which would have struck the most damaging provisions from the bill. Read more.
H.R. 842, known as the Protecting the Right to Organize Act of 2021 (or the PRO Act for short) is coming up this week for a floor vote in the House of Representatives. This is the same “PRO Act” advanced in 2019 by the House. That bill died in the Senate in 2020, but we are in a new political landscape now and House Democrats are looking to advance the PRO Act again. The PRO Act would have many effects on the American economy (and these have been well documented by various news outlets). But there are several provisions of the PRO Act which we believe would be very harmful to CLDA member businesses. Read more.
As part of a reorientation in Department of Labor (DOL) policy, the Biden administration has removed from use a series of Trump administration opinion letters regarding the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Issuing these opinion letters was a practice widely used by the Trump DOL for quick deregulation without the need for a lengthy rulemaking and public comment period. However, the ease with which these letters are issued makes them a short-term fix, and they can be withdrawn just as quickly as they were issued. Read more.
CLDA, in partnership with NYMCSA and TIA, is proud to announce a virtual Transportation and Logistics Advocacy Day in Albany, New York, April 26-28. This is an important opportunity for you to learn about critical industry issues, develop and improve relationships with policymakers and their staffs, and educate and advocate on our industry’s top concerns in the very important state of New York. Learn more.
CLDA continues to advocate for PPP fixes on behalf of our members. See the latest letter to Congress on S. 3612.
CLDA continues to advocate for PPP fixes on behalf of our members. View the letter sent June 2, 2020.
In this time of uncertainty and economic turmoil, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) has been a lifeline to CLDA members and to other small businesses trying to do right by their workers and keep their dreams and companies afloat. Out of our deep concern for the continued integrity of the PPP brought on by post-hoc changes to the loan forgiveness and tax deductibility rules of the program, the CLDA government affairs team reached out to 15 other concerned associations representing logistics and transportation, manufacturing, retail, agriculture, franchisees, and small businesses from many other segments of the economy. Listed here are our partners in this effort:
Association of Fund-Raising Distributors & Suppliers
Air Forwarders Association
Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association
Coalition of Franchisee Associations
Express Carriers Association
Franchise Business Services
International Association of Movers
International Door Association
National Franchisee Association
National Federation of Independent Business
National Pecan Shellers Association
Roof Coatings Manufacturers Association
SHOP!
Society of Maintenance & Reliability Professionals
Window Covering Manufacturers Association
As a group, we came out in support of S. 3612 – the Small Business Expense Protection Act of 2020. This bill introduced by Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and having bipartisan support seeks to clarify for purposes of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 that receipt of coronavirus assistance does not affect the tax treatment of ordinary business expenses.
Further, we believe a serious, apolitical, and bipartisan effort to replenish the PPP’s funding and repair existing issues within the program must be made. We are hoping to continue to work together and work with other like-minded associations to ensure that the PPP remains a viable and robust lifeline for CLDA members and all small businesses.
