>>46416
CALIFORNIA

Newsom signs bill rewriting California employment law, limiting use of independent contractors

By JOHN MYERS , JOHANA BHUIYAN, MARGOT ROOSEVELT
SEP. 18, 2019 3:55 PM

SACRAMENTO - California businesses will soon face new limits in their use of independent contractors under a closely watched proposal signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday, a decision praised by organized labor but unlikely to quell a growing debate over the rules and nature of work in the 21st century economy.
Newsom, who signed Assembly Bill 5 in a private ceremony in his state Capitol office, had already committed to embracing the new law. Legislators gave final approval to the sweeping new employment rules before adjourning for the year last week.

The new law "will help reduce worker misclassification - workers being wrongly classified as 'independent contractors' rather than employees, which erodes basic worker protections like the minimum wage, paid sick days and health insurance benefits," Newsom wrote in a signing message released by his office.

The ruling and new state law raise the bar for companies that otherwise might rely on freelance or contract work. California's bill is arguably the strongest of its kind in the nation, giving the state and cities the right to file suit against companies over misclassification, overriding the arbitration agreements that many businesses use to shield themselves from worker complaints. The new law's supporters point to audits conducted by state employment officials that found almost 500,000 workers were wrongly treated as independent contractors. Much of the early legislative debate on the bill centered on low-wage sectors of the California economy.

"As one of the strongest economies in the world, California is now setting the global standard for worker protections for other states and countries to follow," Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), the author of AB 5, said in a written statement…