Assembly Bill 5 passed through the California Senate committee on July 10.ย The bill formulated three situations that must be true in order for an employer to classify a worker as a contractor.
The three situations that must be true are listed below.
A: The worker is โfree from the control and directionโ of the company that hired them while they perform their work.
B: The worker is performing work that falls โoutside the hiring entityโs usual course or type of business.โ
C: The worker has an independent business or trade beyond the job for which they were hired.
If any of the three situations are not true then the worker is an employee and is forced to be treated as such under the law.
The billโs intentions were to protect workers from abuse, but many truckers want to be contractors rather than employees. With this bill passing truckers are employees and therefore wonโt have the freedom to contract work as they see fit.
One of the loudest voices in opposition was Thien Chan, an independent heavy commercial truck owner-operator.
โIf I were an employee, I would not be able to pick the jobs I go on,โ he said.
The billโs author, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, allowed several professions including physicians, engineers, insurance agents, architects, real estate agents, lawyers, and dentists to be exempt and act as independent contractors.
Sen. Mike Morrell, R- Rancho Cucamonga, vice chairman of the committee, criticized the idea of exceptions saying, โI think itโs going to be a blow to our economyโฆwith all these carve-outs, you are picking winners and losers.โ
Gonzalez responded to Morrellโs criticism in a heated exchange.
โThatโs offensive to me, Iโm not sitting around saying โI like my real estate agent; I think Iโll exempt her.โ โฆ the carve-outs at this point are things that have been debated in these halls, passed in these halls.โ
