California AB-5 Law

Shockingly, as my work has picked back up, all clients so far have responded well to my little upfront talk about the advantage of having all crew that I pull into the project individually invoice the client. I do have a large client who has not called me for the past 8 months or so and their onboarding process for vendors is no joke. There's no way that they would do the piecemeal thing for each crew member. My smaller recent clients have been totally fine with it, understanding that me treating crew as employees would mean that I have to pass the cost onward to the client. Thankfully, these "smaller" clients are actually hiring me for larger projects with decent budgets. I've been pleasantly surprised so far. We'll see how long that lasts.
 
ozmorphasis said:
Shockingly, as my work has picked back up, all clients so far have responded well to my little upfront talk about the advantage of having all crew that I pull into the project individually invoice the client. I do have a large client who has not called me for the past 8 months or so and their onboarding process for vendors is no joke. There's no way that they would do the piecemeal thing for each crew member. My smaller recent clients have been totally fine with it, understanding that me treating crew as employees would mean that I have to pass the cost onward to the client. Thankfully, these "smaller" clients are actually hiring me for larger projects with decent budgets. I've been pleasantly surprised so far. We'll see how long that lasts.
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If this AB-5 insanity doesn't get overturned, I predict that many clients and ICs will go to cash under the table for everything model, just like is done in most third world countries all around the world. Cash is king and when government tries to hose their own people
too badly, the people just find a way around it. People who hire a craft services person for a one day for a few hours aren't going to payroll them, it's that simple. 2-6 person crew productions for $6k budgets aren't going to payroll everyone. Lorena is a paid union shill
who doesn't give a crap about her constituents, this bill is simply, plainly a money grab by the unions, organized crime and complicity by the state.
 
Looks like California is taking steps to un-poo poo AB-5 with assembly bill 2257.

Here's the part concerning videographers:

"The bill would, instead, establish an exemption for services provided by a still photographer, photojournalist, videographer, or photo editor, as defined, who works under a written contract that specifies certain terms, subject to prescribed restrictions. "

There's also language about exemptions for sole props hiring each other, which would take care of the me hiring an HMU for a wedding example that puredrifting provided earlier (not that I ever do that specifically but I certainly hire subcontractors)

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2257
 
With all the new exemptions in that bill it would have been a lot easier to just say "this law only applies to Uber and Lyft"
 
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puredrifting said:
The bill is a flaming dumpster fire but Lorena and Gavin's ego's won't let them revoke it.
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Or alternatively, it is being reformed and amended - exactly as I predicted from day one, when "the sky is falling and California is sliding into the sea" posts started appearing. It's a process. It's not instant. There will be mistakes. They'll get fixed, eventually. And then watch other states copy CA (it's already happening) - because CA invents the future and not just stays with "it's bad and better cannot be had", the only way humans got out of the caves.

That said, undoubtedly, they should have done some more research before passing this law - so bad on them for their ignorance which shouldn't have been there (it was badly written, and it was clear at the time that it was badly written), and bad on them for the arrogance of not consulting with the stakeholders. That's absolutely true. The critics are right about that. What is also true is that the reason AB-5 was generated in the first place is because there is a real problem that needs to be addressed - and the denial of the existence of this problem is where those dumping on CA are wrong, and have been proven wrong for decades and will continue to be proven wrong.

In sum: there are serious problems in the labor market. To ignore it, is to have the economy of Alabama, and states whose philosophy is that no matter how bad things are, there is no need to fix them. AB-5 was written to address those problems. Unfortunately, it was badly written. What to do from there - the adults in the room understand that nothing is perfect from the get go, and that reforms are necessary. That's where we are now. The progress is slower than we'd like it, but it'll get there eventually. What will not help is throwing out the baby with the bathwater and saying "nothing needs fixing". YMMV.
 
As of ~ 5:30 AM EST.

California Proposition 22

Prop. 22 would classify app-based drivers (like those for Uber and Lyft) as independent contractors instead of employees. A "yes" vote will allow companies to classify their drivers as contractors. A "no" vote will make companies hire drivers as employees.

Results:
Yes - 58.2%
No - 41.8%
 
Yes, Uber and Lyft said they would close up shop in California if they didn't get an exemption, I thought to was a done deal to exempt them.

The rest of you are just screwed.

Would then lend to app. based production crew hires? Seems like it would be easy to accomplish this if it gets around some of the things that are going to make the business harder.
 
Greg_E said:
Yes, Uber and Lyft said they would close up shop in California if they didn't get an exemption, I thought to was a done deal to exempt them.

The rest of you are just screwed.

Would then lend to app. based production crew hires? Seems like it would be easy to accomplish this if it gets around some of the things that are going to make the business harder.
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Quick, better trademark Crewber!
 
Greg_E said:
Yes, Uber and Lyft said they would close up shop in California if they didn't get an exemption, I thought to was a done deal to exempt them.

The rest of you are just screwed.
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Did AB2257 not already create the necessary exception for our work?
 
DLD said:
As of ~ 5:30 AM EST.

California Proposition 22

Prop. 22 would classify app-based drivers (like those for Uber and Lyft) as independent contractors instead of employees. A "yes" vote will allow companies to classify their drivers as contractors. A "no" vote will make companies hire drivers as employees.

Results:
Yes - 58.2%
No - 41.8%
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Will be interesting to see what this does to AB-5 since the whole reason AB-5 was created was specifically to go after the tech giant ride share companies. Currently, they are exempt and can keep doing business as normal, but the small businesses (ie. film/video production) that weren't intended to get hurt are the ones left under AB-5 that are totally screwed here. Hoping this leads to the dismantling of AB-5, but what an irony.
 
Yeah, AB-5 just got gutted and there seems to be little reason left to keep the rest of it. But didn't they already recently pass a carve-out for videographers/photographers exempting them?
 
Existing law exempts specified occupations and business relationships from the application of the ABC test described above. Existing law, instead, provides that these exempt relationships are governed by the multifactor test previously adopted in the case of S. G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989) 48 Cal.3d 341. Existing exemptions include persons providing professional services under specified circumstances, including certain services provided by still photographers, photojournalists, freelance writers, editors, and newspaper cartoonists.

This bill would revise and recast these provisions. The bill would additionally exempt certain occupations in connection with creating, marketing, promoting, or distributing sound recordings or musical compositions. The bill would also exempt a musician or musical group for the purpose of a single-engagement live performance event, unless certain conditions apply, and would define related terms. The bill would also exempt an individual performance artist presenting material that is their original work and creative in character and the result of which depends primarily on the individual’s invention, imagination, or talent, if certain conditions are satisfied.

This bill would delete the existing professional services exemptions for services provided by still photographers, photojournalists, freelance writers, editors, and newspaper cartoonists. The bill would, instead, establish an exemption for services provided by a still photographer, photojournalist, videographer, or photo editor, as defined, who works under a written contract that specifies certain terms, subject to prescribed restrictions. The bill would establish an exemption for services provided to a digital content aggregator, as defined, by a still photographer, photojournalist, videographer, or photo editor. The bill would establish an exemption for services provided by a fine artist, freelance writer, translator, editor, content contributor, advisor, narrator, cartographer, producer, copy editor, illustrator, or newspaper cartoonist who works under a written contract that specifies certain terms, subject to prescribed restrictions.

This bill would create additional exemptions for various professions and occupations. In this regard, the bill would exempt from the ABC test people who provide underwriting inspections and other services for the insurance industry, a manufactured housing salesperson, subject to certain obligations, people engaged by an international exchange visitor program, as specified, consulting services, animal services, and competition judges with specialized skills, as specified. The bill would also create exceptions for licensed landscape architects, specialized performers teaching master classes, registered professional foresters, real estate appraisers and home inspectors, and feedback aggregators. The bill would revise the conditions pursuant to which business service providers providing services pursuant to contract to another business are exempt. The bill would revise the criteria pursuant to which referral agencies and service providers providing services to clients through referral agencies are exempt and would revise applicable definitions. The bill would also create an exemption for business-to-business relationships between 2 or more sole proprietors, as specified. The bill would provide that a hiring entity need only satisfy all of the conditions of one of the exemption provisions to qualify for the exemption from the ABC Test.

Existing law authorizes an action for injunctive relief to prevent misclassification of employees, to be prosecuted against a putative employer by the Attorney General or a city attorney.

AB2257

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200AB2257
 
When I ran for chief cookie passer outer in kindergarten. After that it was money and politics intertwined.
 
Some indications that Harris/Biden will be bringing the wonders of AB-5 nationwide.

https://selfeducatedamerican.com/2021/01/22/gig-economy-regulation-under-biden/

VA implemented some similar laws last year that made some of my more skittish clients needlessly more skittish and prompted them to hire inexperienced, expensive formal employees to use their hastily-purchased inferior equipment to manage video needs. Of course I don’t get it... we’re service providers. Nobody hires a dentist or roofer full time.

On the plus side, it weeded out a few cheapskates I was looking to dump as clients anyway, and the year turned out just fine.
 
mcbob said:
Some indications that Harris/Biden will be bringing the wonders of AB-5 nationwide.

https://selfeducatedamerican.com/2021/01/22/gig-economy-regulation-under-biden/

VA implemented some similar laws last year that made some of my more skittish clients needlessly more skittish and prompted them to hire inexperienced, expensive formal employees to use their hastily-purchased inferior equipment to manage video needs. Of course I don’t get it... we’re service providers. Nobody hires a dentist or roofer full time.

On the plus side, it weeded out a few cheapskates I was looking to dump as clients anyway, and the year turned out just fine.
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Accidentally upvoted this when meant to downvote. You don't think "Self Educated American" might be a tiny bit political?
 
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