A RESOLUTION relating to misclassifications of workers as independent contractors when they should be designated as employees; requesting semi-annual updates to the Council starting at the end of the 3rd quarter of 2019 on the work the Office of Labor Standards and Labor Standards Advisory Commission is doing to investigate and correct misclassifications.
Item 3.8 The Housing, Health, Energy and Workers Rights Committee. Agenda Item eight Resolution 318 63 relating to misclassification of workers as independent contractors when they should be designated as employees. Requesting semiannual updates to the Council starting at the end of the third quarter of 2018 on the work on the Office of Labor Standards and Labor Standards Advisory Commission is doing to investigate and correct Ms. Classifications Committee recommends the resolution be adopted as amended. Casper Mosquito Thank you, Mr. President. If I might, I might defer to the prime sponsor of the legislation, and I can make a few closing comments at the end. This came through my committee, but it was an honor to work with Councilmember Herbold on this. Councilmember Herbold. Yes, many thanks to the chair of the committee, Councilmember Mosqueda, for allowing me to move this resolution through her committee. The reason why this resolution is so important is that we are seeing that the the definition of employment is changing before our very eyes as we work to pass better labor laws to protect our employees. There are more and more employees who are being categorized as contractors and not eligible to receive access to our labor laws like $15 minimum wage, paid sick and save time, and a whole host of other protections for the workforce. The resolution itself asks the Office of Labor Standards to propose policy solutions to the Council in order to address the issue of misclassification. Misclassification. Misclassification is when an employer. Calls. Somebody who fits the definition of an employee, a contractor. The resolution asks the Labor Standards Advisory Committee to develop a work program and consider how the committee can work with the Office of Labor Standards to engage stakeholders in addressing this issue. It also directs the Office of Labor Standards to develop strategies that the city should consider based on the findings of a study that is being conducted by the Washington State Department of Commerce with a delivery date of June 1st, 2019. The. I've been corresponding with an Amazon flex driver who over the last year has described evolving practices from that employer. And it has gone from a situation where people were told a week in advance of shifts being available at the same time and individuals having the opportunity to compete for those that shift to what the practice is now is that shifts are offered at any different times of the day, different times of the week, and literally those shifts are gone within within a minute. So this means that people are actually having to spend large amounts of time at their computer, that they're not being compensated for waiting for these shifts. A Gizmodo report identifies that the issue at hand is labor misclassification. Companies pay the drivers to do the work of employees, but treat them as independent contractors, denying them basic amenities like health care benefits, worker compensation in the event of an on on the job injury. This is something that two drivers that were that were interviewed for this this article had themselves experienced. And we know from the National Employment Law Project that the determination of whether or not a worker is doing the job of a contractor employee comes down to some specific key factors. And that is not simply whether or not you call them a contractor or an employee. So I am really looking forward to the Office of Labor Standards, working with the Labor Standards Advisory Committee, to explore this issue and bring some policy recommendations back to the Council to act on. Thank you. Because we heard about. Jasmine Mosquito. Thank you very much, Mr. President. So when I came to office a little over a year ago now, the first conversation I had with Councilmember Herbold was regarding her longstanding interest in helping to address issues of misclassification so that our labor standards can ensure strong protections for all workers. As we know, misclassification affects many industries, many traditional industries, like the folks that I've worked with in the past, and home care janitor, janitorial work, construction and restaurant work. And now we've seen more and more examples of how misclassification is prevalent in the gig economy. Many workers who are misclassified, mischaracterized by their employers as independent contractors result in fewer labor protections and really put the workers in a precarious position when they try to avoid taxes or not pay worker's compensation or unemployment insurance or other financial obligations, that sometimes the workers don't actually know that they're in that situation until they get injured or they get let go. Also, we know that it's a really important issue to look at very carefully because there's a number of folks who are truly independent contractors. They're bona fide independent contractors who have direction and control, who set their own schedule, who have their own tools. And they are like our real estate agents and our hairdressers, folks who are truly independent contractors and many of the domestic workers that have created their own companies as well, which we'll talk about in a minute, are folks who truly have direction and control over their work. They should have the right balance so that our laws truly reflect their work. And I think the approach that Councilmember Herbold has put together through this resolution, her work with our business and labor partners at the table, will help us find that right balance to address misclassification. And we look forward to seeing how this issue continues to play out at the state level as well. I appreciate your leadership on this and happy to see this move forward. Very good. Castro Gonzalez. Thank you. So I want to thank Councilmember Herbold for her continued dedication and work in this particular space. I know she's been thinking through this particular subject for quite some time, including when she was the chair responsible for labor issues at the city. And I also want to echo thanks for Councilman ROSQUETA for making time in her busy committee schedule to hear this important issue. And I just want to say that I really support the direction of this resolution. As a young lawyer, I had an opportunity to work with my firm, Shrader, Goldmark and Bender and the Latino Latino Bar Association of Washington to establish a legal clinic at Central La Raza, still housed at El Centro. De La Raza has been going strong since 2008 and really proud of the fact that this legal clinic has been able to help and provide legal services to thousands of low wage workers that wouldn't ordinarily have access to legal services in a lot of different areas. But one of the things the reason I bring that up is because one of the areas that we received a lot of inquiries from from many, many, many people, dozens of people who would go to the legal clinic seeking legal advice is in this space of independent contractors and really struggling with understanding from a worker perspective whether you truly are an independent contractor or not. And the amount of egregious examples of abuse, of misclassification, what were just innumerable so many stories from people living here in Seattle, working in Seattle who were forced to, for example, sign contracts, signing their rights away, even though they didn't speak English, for example, didn't understand what they were signing, and even if they did speak English, the complexities of the documents that they're being asked to sign, that effectively consent to being an independent contractor when they're actually functioning like a worker. Those are the stories that I kept seeing coming through legal clinic that I know still are coming through that legal clinic . And so looking forward to being able to really dig into this body of work and providing some protection for this class of workers is going to be really critical and important. And I would urge Councilmember Herbold and the Office of Labor Standards to figure out a way to partner up with many of the legal clinics that are currently happening throughout the city, through the King County Bar Associations or the Washington State Bar Association, and certainly through a minority bar associations who have real life examples of how this misclassification plays out from the worker perspective, and happy to create connections in that space to make sure that that that whatever the policies that are being developed are going to be truly responsive to some of the needs. And then in closing, I'll just say that we can have a better director at the Office of Labor Standards than Marty Garfinkel to address and tackle this issue. He is considered an expert in the state in terms of his legal expertize related to independent contractor misclassification. He's done some of the most seminal wage and hour class action cases in this area. And. You all will be very well-served by his expertize. And I know he this is one of his favorite topics in the whole wide world. So I expect that this work is going to be really robust and I'm really excited to see what the recommendations are going to be. So thank you. Very good. Excellent. Okay. So if that list is any further comments, we'll go ahead and vote those in favor of adopting the resolution. Please vote i i. Those opposed vote no. The motion carries. The resolution is adopted. And Cheryl, sign it. Okay. Please read items nine through 12.