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In a ruling with potentially sweeping consequences for the so-called gig economy, the California Supreme Court on Monday made it much more difficult for companies to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees.
The decision could eventually require companies like Uber, many of which are based in California, to follow minimum-wage and overtime laws and to pay workers' compensation and unemployment insurance and payroll taxes, potentially upending their business models.
Industry executives have estimated that classifying drivers and other gig workers as employees tends to cost 20 to 30 percent more than classifying them as contractors. It also brings benefits that can offset these costs, though, like the ability to control schedules and the manner of work.
"It's a massive thing — definitely a game-changer that will force everyone to take a fresh look at the whole issue," said Richard Meneghello, a co-chairman of the gig-economy practice group at the management-side law firm Fisher Phillips.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/business/economy/gig-economy-ruling.html
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @05:41PM (15 children)
By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may eventually get to be boss and work twelve. -- Robert Frost
What is wrong with America is that many bosses are effectively working 4, and the employees are effectively working 12., with no chances for advancement without jumping ship to another vessel passing in the night. If they miss their window to jump, they are either stuck there until they're lucky enough to catch another passing ship to jump to, or until they fumble their jump and fall into the ocean of unemployment, hoping that someone will cast them a live preserver and drag them aboard a new ship that is better than their old one.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @06:01PM (5 children)
The ship will probably be shittier than the old one, plus good luck getting picked up at all. After all, if you were valuable, what are you doing in the ocean?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @06:07PM (4 children)
Let the existential terror of simply existing in the US commence! err, CONTINUE!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 02 2018, @09:28PM (3 children)
What country again doesn't have existential terror? It's not like there is a country in the world where one's life can't be snuffed out in a moment.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @10:31PM
Are you threatening us, again, khallow? Please don't free market us!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @10:47PM (1 child)
Ah yes, khallow the shit-equivocator.
Well lets see, first off any country with universal healthcare! No worries about getting buried under a mountain of deb due to some medical issue beyond your control.
Any country with decent services to help the unemployed / disabled, along with free education.
Any country in the 20% range for World Bank GINI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality [wikipedia.org]
Every country will have some problems that make life hard for its citizens, but there are better and worse places.
Why do you always chime in on these topics? Just to try and make yourself feel better about living in a shitty country? Yes there are worse places than the US, but you obviously are stuck in a bubble or not paying attention to the every day reality of your fellow citizens. I can not overstate how horrible you are for always defending the worst shit and trying to make it seem like there is nothing better than the US.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 03 2018, @12:04AM
Or you could get insurance that covers that. And universal health care turns threats for the individual into threats for the society. Government bankruptcy isn't usually an existential threat, but it's not something that goes away quickly either.
Which was a quite valid equivocation, let us note. Treatable health problems aren't the only source of existential threats for a person (the poster I replied to implied otherwise) and thus, it is foolish to assume that the existence of health care would remove all existential threats.
Ok, so what? Income inequality is a scam for dodging that absolute income has improved greatly and poverty gone down greatly.
Equivocation alert!
Because you are ignorant and need help.
And I can't overstate just how weak as your "worst shit" is. Oh dear, I defended the processes that have done the most over history (particularly, over recent history!) to elevation humans out of poverty and improve the human condition. I'm a Genghis Hitler for that!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @08:26PM (5 children)
You left out an important part of the picture:
Republican-majority Congresses[1] since Reagan have cut and cut again funding for enforcement agencies.
People who clearly aren't in management have been put on salary by USAian corps and required to work what amounts to unpaid overtime.
In the extreme, you get what Japan has. [google.com]
[1] ...with a single 2-year window--which O'Bummer squandered.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 02 2018, @09:30PM (4 children)
Except, of course, Japan works less hours on average per week than the US does. Sure, the overworked salaryman exists, but they're only a part not the whole. The rest has more comfortable working hours.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:33PM (3 children)
It's true, they do work less than Americans do. And here's why: Workers unionized in the late 1980's and demanded a shorter work week. Just like how US wage-earners won the 40-hour work week slowly from the 1880's to the 1930's.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 03 2018, @03:42PM (2 children)
Japan has been heavily unionized since the 1950s. The unions just work with the businesses instead of against them.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday May 03 2018, @04:02PM (1 child)
Unions necessarily work against the businesses. It's inherent to the relationship. Workers, and by extension their unions, want to maximize wages/salary/benefits and minimize the work required to earn them. Bosses, and by extension the business, want to minimize wages/salary/benefits and maximize the work required to earn them. Those are diametrically opposed positions, by their very nature.
Bosses do a lot of things to try to hide that aspect of the relationship, but it's always there.
Don't believe me? Ask for a raise, right now.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 18 2018, @12:18AM
No, that's not true. As I noted, Japanese labor unions are such a counterexample.
Everyone has this conflict of interest. A lot have figured out how to cooperate with others who have different interests.
And the positions aren't diametrically opposed. After all, they have a common interest in the business succeeding.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday May 02 2018, @09:21PM (2 children)
There are many such ships in the night. People already figured this out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @10:52PM (1 child)
dumbass is dumb, news at 11
The problem here is the mindset of most business owners who remove all humanity from the workplace. I cry tears of joy every time I read about some asshat of a boss getting screwed when a near irreplaceable employee finally quits. That same mindset is what is driving demand for H1Bs, which I'm pretty sure you really don't like. Thanks for trying to dilute the discussion as usual you trollish little scab.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 03 2018, @12:05AM
Not much of a problem. Just don't work there.