The passage of AB 5 in 2019 was a monumental victory for workers. Last month, the US Supreme Court rejected the California Trucking Association’s appeal leaving the law intact for trucking. Gone are the days when corporations could get away with misclassifying California workers as independent contractors to pay them less and deny basic benefits and protections. With the protections outlined by AB 5 now firmly in place, both worker rights and our supply chain are strengthened.

Corporations misclassify workers to maximize their profits. When workers are illegally misclassified, they lose out on:

• The right to minimum wage for all the hours worked or overtime pay.
• The right to workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, paid sick days, or reimbursements for gas, truck maintenance or any other work-related reimbursement. 
• The right to benefits, such as health care coverage, retirement, and many other traditional benefits of employment that instead fall on the worker to pay for in full. 
• The right to organize and collectively bargain a contract for better working conditions.

Abuse was literally built into the system from the start. But change is coming!

AB 5 codified a unanimous 2018 ruling by the California Supreme Court, adopting the ABC test for employment status. In order for employers to classify a worker as a contractor who is not entitled to employee rights and protections, a hiring entity must prove all three prongs:

A. The person is free from direction and control with the performance of the work.

B. The person performs work that is outside the hiring entity’s business.  

C. The person is routinely doing work in an independently established trade, occupation, or  business that is the same as the work being performed.  

A failure to meet these three prongs means that the worker in question is not truly “independent”  and is therefore an employee under California’s employment laws.

Protecting workers from misclassification has benefits beyond worker pay, benefits, and protections. Misclassification has had a devastating impact both in California and across the country, as lower pay, job security, and higher expenses make the profession less enticing to prospective drivers.

AB 5 is a critical step toward treating workers with the respect they deserve, and it is only possible because of the efforts of our workers throughout California. For generations, California has led the way on workers’ rights and tackling the issues facing the United States and the world. Thanks to Governor Newsom and many others, California is once again at the forefront of putting an end to the abuse of workers and our environment at the hands of greedy corporations.

If you think you have been misclassified as a contractor and are owed back wages, you can file a claim with the Labor Commissioner’s Office. Learn more, here.