The labor rights of freelancers and independent contractors have been much in the news recently. In California for example, a law passed in 2019, which came into effect January 1, codified a California Supreme Court ruling in the case Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court about the status of gig economy workers. The gist of AB5 was to place the burden of proving workers are independent contractors onto employers, which aimed to put pressure on Uber, Lyft and other "gig-economy" companies who have been exploiting their workers' statuses as independent contractors to avoid employers' legal obligations to their workers.
Concern over the welfare and employment rights has not been confined to the country's most populous state, however. New York City's Commission On Human Rights has published new information for freelancers and contractors working in the city. The Commission's goal is to elaborate and clarify who qualifies as a freelancer under the law, and to inform them of their rights and protections. These were expanded by amendments to a city law passed by the City Council in the fall of 2019.
This guidance is also designed for employers to understand who qualifies for protections and what their obligations to contractors are. Companies with 15 or more employees that employ contractors who work 80 or more hours in a year and at least 90 days are required by law to provide employment and sexual harassment training to contractors, for example.
The expanded law also provides contractors with protection against various types of discrimination, including the prohibition of the use of credit checks or inquiries into previous salary rates during the hiring process, making employers liable for discriminatory practices, and the provision of reasonable accommodations for contractors and other employees, such as making lactation rooms available for nursing mothers.
