On March 5, ABC, its Southeast Texas chapter, the Coalition for Workforce Innovation, the Financial Services Institute, the American Trucking Associations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Retail Federation and the National Federation of Independent Business filed an amended complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas arguing that the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act final rule is unlawful and a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. The district court will review the complaint and response from the U.S. Department of Justice. The final rule goes into effect on March 11. 

“The 2024 final independent contractor rule is confusing, vague and unworkable, and will harm construction workers classified as independent contractors because they will lose crucial opportunities for work. Further, the difficult-to-interpret standards in this final rule strip independent contractors of basic freedoms and rights to choose how they work. Replacing the commonsense 2021 final rule was the wrong move by the U.S. Department of Labor and has created an ambiguous standard for determining employee or independent contractor status under the Fair Labor Standards Act,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs. Read the business coalition’s statement.

Separately, on March 6, ABC sent a letter to Congress urging members to pass a Congressional Review Act resolution to nullify the U independent contractor final rule.

On Jan. 9, the DOL announced the final rule on Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which rescinds the ABC-supported 2021 final rule and replaces it with a confusing multifactor analysis to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. Learn more about the 2024 final rule. Also, watch the ABC-members only archived webinar in the Academy, "Learn What the DOL's Final Independent Contractor Rule Means for ABC Members."

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