Skip to main content

What I’ve Been Reading This Week


This week, there is something for everyone:  An update on several new pieces of labor & employment legislation in Kentucky, an amendment to California’s Assembly Bill 5, and a potential change to the way World Wrestling Entertainment wrestlers are classified (re being independent contractors rather than employees.)

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


Kentucky House Democrats Release Ambitious Range of Litigation 

Earlier this week, Kentucky House Democrats released a list of legislation that they have introduced, with an emphasis on Kentucky workers.  Of note, the legislation includes raising the hourly minimum wage rate in the state to $15/hour, repealing the state’s right to work law, reinstituting a prevailing wage, requiring paid sick leave and parental leave be provided to workers, and allowing for collective bargaining for all public employees.  While the legislation is ambitious, with a Senate and House in Republican majority control, most of this legislation likely will not advance too far.


Spending on California’s Proposition 22 Ballot Initiative Sets Record

Ahead of November’s elections, in which California voters will have their say on Proposition 22, spending on the initiative has topped $181.4 million (and counting.)  For those unaware, Proposition 22 is a ballot initiative backed by gig companies (such as Uber & Lyft) which seeks to make it easier to classify drivers as independent contractors rather than employees.  Hot on the heels of the passage of California’s Assembly Bill 5, these gig companies have sought to make Proposition 22 their attempt to undo that legislation.  (Readers will likely recall that Assembly Bill 5 made it easier, in fact much easier, to classify gig workers as employees rather than independent contractors.)  As Michael Hiltzik at The Los Angeles Times writes, with over $181.4 million having already been spent on Proposition 22 (and with several weeks still to go before the November 3rd vote), it is widely expected that this record setting spending will continue to increase heading into the home stretch.  Whether it will be enough to secure approval of Proposition 22 remains unclear (and frankly, somewhat doubtful based upon the California electorate.)


Former Democratic Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang Ready to Bodyslam WWE’s Wrestler Classification

In recent days, it has become known that World Wresting Entertainment (“WWE”) has implemented a policy prohibiting its workers from using their ring name and personal name in outside ventures (such as Twitch streams, YouTube channels, Cameos, etc.)  While the specifics of this new policy are apparently still being hashed out, the initial announcement brought a wave of criticism toward the company.  That criticism included Andrew Yang stating that if Joe Biden were elected President and appointed him as Labor Secretary, he would target WWE’s policy of classifying its wrestlers as independent contractors rather than employees.  (That classification issue has long been a source of controversy with many questioning how the company can classify the wrestlers as independent contractors when their work is so heavily controlled by the WWE.)  Whether Joe Biden gets elected and whether Andrew Yang would be appointed Labor Secretary are anyone’s guess.  However, if I were Vince McMahon, Chairman and CEO of WWE, I would be somewhat wary of what headaches a Democratic administration could bring to the wrestler classification matter.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa

Utah Non-Compete Bill Falters in House

Last month, a non-compete bill sponsored by Representative Brian Greene (Republican from Pleasant Grove) & up for vote in the Utah House failed to make it through the Legislature.  The bill sought to ban enforcement of non-competes if they came after a worker was already employed, given no compensation (such as a bonus or promotion) for signing the non-compete, and laid off within six months.  However, by a 22 - 49 vote, the bill was resoundingly defeated after some business groups lobbied to kill the non-compete bill.  One group in particular, The Free Enterprise Utah coalition, argued that the Utah State Legislature should hold off on any changes to non compete laws in the state until a survey about non competes was done among Utah businesses.  Representative Greene had countered this claim and argued that a survey was not needed to show that the current non compete laws in the states allowed many businesses, including some small high tech companies in the state, to per