What happens when a court legislates, and legislators pick winners and losers?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: John Kabateck, California State Director, 916-956-9027, [email protected],
or Shawn Lewis, Policy Director, 916-342-9315; [email protected],
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 11, 2019—It began with a court taking it upon itself to legislate who is an employee and who is an independent contractor and ended today with final legislative passage of a bill aimed at putting the court’s decision into regulatory and enforceable code but winding up instead picking which occupations get a pass and which don’t.
“I counted 37 occupations which received safe shelter from complying with the State Supreme Court’s so-called ABC test. This is a sad day for good governance,” said NFIB California State Director John Kabateck about the passage of Assembly Bill 5, which aims to codify last year’s California Supreme Court’s Dynamex decision
NFIB is the state’s leading small-business association and has members among the occupations excluded by AB 5 but also many others that weren’t. “AB 5 will forever be a missed opportunity to ameliorate a bad court decision by establishing a uniform law for all to follow,” said Kabateck. “Prior to the court’s Dynamex decision, our state was served quite capably by the Borello decision for the past 30 years.”
Added NFIB Policy Director Shawn Lewis, “Industry-by-industry exemptions from Dynamex don’t work for small businesses. Small businesses represent a vast diversity of industries, and the Legislature should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. There would never have been a need for Assembly Bill 5 if the ABC test were truly great. The undeniable truth is the current status of the law is unworkable for far too many small businesses and entrepreneurs in a state as diverse as California.”
AB 5 now awaits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.
Keep up with the latest on California small-business at www.nfib.com/california or by following NFIB on Twitter @NFIB_CA or on Facebook @NFIB.CA
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For more than 75 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven association. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.
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