Opportunity To Make Your Company’s Voice Heard On House Labor Bill
As Connecting the Dots reported earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives will schedule a vote on H.R. 2474, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act within the next few weeks.
The legislation would allow employees to form unions under certain circumstances by “card check” (informal collection of authorization forms from a majority within the bargaining unit) and would codify the Obama-era joint-employer standard into law and change requirements for independent contractor status.
The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace currently is assembling organizations and companies to sign a letter opposing the legislation. If your organization did not sign on before but would like to, please email cdwreply@abc.org. The Coalition sent a similar letter to members of Congress last fall. That letter can be found here.
Additionally, the American Action Forum (AAF) has released a report detailing the economic impact of the PRO Act. AAF found:
- Changing the classification criteria for independent contractors would potentially put $3.6 billion to $12.1 billion of annual upward cost pressure on employers;
- Expanding the number of business arrangements subject to joint employer rules would affect 44 percent of private sector employees and lead to $17.2 billion to $33.3 billion in lost annual output for the franchise business sector;
- Repealing all Right-to-Work laws would hinder private sector output, employment growth, and business migration; and
- Restricting employers from permanently replacing strikers would result in over $1.9 billion in total additional annual upward cost pressure.
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