Well done, as always! One of the testifiers' comments really stuck with me--and not because it was a good, fair comment. Jesse Madison of Purple Tally Productions said: "Lastly, I would ask the opposition to worry less about the damage that might happen and worry more about damage that is happening." In other words: He doesn't want legislators to consider the fact that independent contractors' livelihoods are decimated whenever sweeping changes to worker classification are implemented.
I have never heard anyone, state or federal, say that employee misclassification is OK. Everyone (including me) says yes, of course, hold the bad-actor companies accountable. The difference between our side and their side is that we also say, "But hey, let's not hurt the majority of properly classified, hardworking people in the process."
This variant of freelance busting is like a police department that's salivating to install a bunch of speed traps around town. But they didn't get what they want, so now they're filing fake tickets and screaming "Look how bad the speeding problem is, we need to do something!"
Doesn't MN have their hands full with real fraud as opposed to the issue of protecting independent contractors. MN should just adopt new national standard and save themselves millions of dollars in litigation they can't afford.
Well done, as always! One of the testifiers' comments really stuck with me--and not because it was a good, fair comment. Jesse Madison of Purple Tally Productions said: "Lastly, I would ask the opposition to worry less about the damage that might happen and worry more about damage that is happening." In other words: He doesn't want legislators to consider the fact that independent contractors' livelihoods are decimated whenever sweeping changes to worker classification are implemented.
This comment starts at about 28 minutes, 15 seconds into the hearing which can be watched here: https://www.house.mn.gov/hjvid/94/899813
I have never heard anyone, state or federal, say that employee misclassification is OK. Everyone (including me) says yes, of course, hold the bad-actor companies accountable. The difference between our side and their side is that we also say, "But hey, let's not hurt the majority of properly classified, hardworking people in the process."
This variant of freelance busting is like a police department that's salivating to install a bunch of speed traps around town. But they didn't get what they want, so now they're filing fake tickets and screaming "Look how bad the speeding problem is, we need to do something!"
The fact that the committee stacked the witnesses in such a lopsided way reeks of exactly that
Doesn't MN have their hands full with real fraud as opposed to the issue of protecting independent contractors. MN should just adopt new national standard and save themselves millions of dollars in litigation they can't afford.