In July, the House Committee on Education and Workforce passed the “Modern Worker Empowerment Act” (H.R. 1319), which means the House could vote on this bill soon. We need to act now, because this bill is anything but empowering for workers.
H.R. 1319 would change the classification criteria used to determine whether a worker is an employee or a contractor in two important ways.
First, workers would be considered contractors if the employer “does not exercise significant control over the details of the way the work is performed”, regardless of whether or not a boss has the final say on the finished work.
Second, workers would be considered contractors if they “exercise managerial skill, business acumen, or professional judgment” in the course of their work.
If passed, this bill would give employers free reign to reclassify wide swaths of their workforce from employees to contractors, stripping those workers of employer-provided benefits, workplace protections, and the right to collectively bargain.
Teachers. Nurses. Truck drivers. Countless workers who have control over the details of how they work and use professional judgement would be affected by this bill.
Unsurprisingly, DoorDash is a big supporter of this bill. Already under fire for classifying its drivers as contractors, DoorDash has a lot to gain if H.R. 1319 passes. DoorDash’s support of this bill shows that the company is willing to go after all workers’ rights if it boosts the company’s bottom line.
According to a recent article in Business Insider, Mr. Xu actually reads his emails. So while we’ve loaded a pre-written message to get you started, we encourage you to tell him how you really feel, in your own words. Outraged that DoorDash would go after our rights and benefits? About to delete the DoorDash app from your phone? Say so!
Thank you for taking action on this important issue.
In solidarity,
The Labor Force