The Biden administration doesn’t know when to take the L— especially in their efforts to undermine freelancing.
With the Big Labor-backed Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act currently stalled in Congress and freelance foe David Weil failing to get his old Department of Labor gig back, shouldn’t they take a hint?
Sadly, they aren’t.
Biden’s Labor Department continues to wage their war on independent contracting. Why? They have a short window left before the midterms to make every American worker a unionized employee.
Biden Admin Ignoring Courts That Found D ICs Were Unlawful
By taking an ax to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to make all workers employees, this administration is violating norms and dismissing economic trends favoring flexible work arrangements.
The Labor Department has ignored a March 2022 federal court ruling that deemed their withdrawal of the Trump-era independent contractor rule “unlawful.” Adding insult to injury, they’re appealing the decision.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas ruled the department violated the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 by only offering a 19-day comment period on the “delayed” IC rule. Governmental agencies must allow 30-60 notice-and-comment periods.
The Coalition for Workforce Innovation et al. v. Walsh decision reads like this, “Having vacated the Delay Rule, the court turns to the Withdrawal Rule. Plaintiffs claim that the Withdrawal Rule is arbitrary and capricious, in violation of the APA. Again, the court agrees.”
It added, “In this instance, the court finds that the DOL failed to consider potential alternatives to rescinding the Independent Contractor Rule. Indeed, the DOL prohibited any comments on the issue.”