Business Groups Weigh in Against Proposed Expansive Increase in Workplace Regulation

Employment Law

HR Policy and 127 other employer groups signed letters to Congress expressing concerns and strong opposition to the deceptively-named Workplace Democracy Act (S. 2810 and H.R. 5728), the provisions of which include severely limiting independent contractor status for many individuals.

The sweeping legislation is a wish-list of changes to labor and employment law, including:

• Stripping workers’ right to private voting and secret ballots in union elections;
  
  
• Eliminating “secondary boycott” protections that protect employers from becoming ensnared in other employers' labor disputes;
  
  
• Codifying the NLRB’s controversial Browning-Ferris joint employment standard;
  
  
• Eliminating the ability of states to enact Right-to-Work laws; and
  
  
• Importing into the NLRA California’s recently adopted “ABC” test for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor.

Why it matters: Although the legislation will not move this year in the Republican-controlled Congress, it lays down a marker for what Democrats are likely to pursue over the next two years.  Significantly, the legislation could see action in a Democrat-controlled House, depending on the election results in November.