In a further
incursion into the area of the gig and new age economy, the Regional Director
for the National Labor Relations Board’s Los Angeles office has issued an
unfair labor practice complaint alleging that it is a violation of the
National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”) for an employer to misclassify an
employee as an independent contractor.
The Complaint,
which is based on a charge filed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters,
through its’ Justice
For Port Truck Drivers campaign, asserts that Intermodal Bridge
Transport (“IBT”) “has misclassified its employee drivers as independent
contractors, thereby inhibiting them from engaging in Section 7 activity and
depriving them of the protections of the Act. The theory behind the ULP charge
and complaint is that the Act gives employees the right to unionize and engage
in other protected, concerted activity, and that if an employer misclassifies a
worker as an independent contractor, it unlawfully deprives the worker of those
rights.
The issuance of
the complaint in this case comes less than a month after the Board’s General
Counsel issued General Counsel Memorandum 16-01, Mandatory Submissions to
Advice, identifying the types of cases that reflected “matters that involve
General Counsel initiatives and/or priority areas of the law and labor
policy.” Among the top priorities are “Cases involving the employment
status of workers in the on-demand economy,” and “Cases involving the question
of whether the misclassification of employees as independent contractors,”
which as reflected in the IBT complaint the General Counsel contends violates
Section 8(a)(1) of the Act.
Clearly organized labor is using the General
Counsel Memorandum as an invitation to present cases raising the issues the
General Counsel is seeking to litigate. We will continue to report as additional cases emerge from the
General Counsel’s wish list of priorities and initiatives.
Source: The
National Law Review
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