Committee fights to stop ‘government control’ over 70M gig workers

(The Center Square) – Retainment of the independent contractor model in the American workforce is being sought by a congressional committee and could lead to subpoena of a Biden administration leader, a North Carolina congresswoman says.

Writing to interim Department of Labor Secretary Julie Su, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx said her failure to provide responses and data to the Committee on Education & the Workforce is an obstruction to its lawful oversight. Foxx’s letter on Thursday says her panel is “continuing to seek information about the administration’s efforts to eliminate the independent contractor model and classify as many workers as employees as possible in order to increase government control over workers.”

Su has two weeks – Aug. 22 – to fulfill the request. Foxx is chairwoman of the committee in the House of Representatives.

Six criteria, none weighted more than the other, determine independent workers’ legal protections and compensation under the new law enacted March 11. The previous rule prioritized the company’s control of the worker and the “entrepreneurial opportunity” the work provides.

The half dozen considerations, according to a release, are any opportunity for profit or loss a worker might have; the financial stake and nature of any resources a worker has invested in the work; the degree of permanence of the work relationship; the degree of control an employer has over the person’s work; whether the work the person does is essential to the employer’s business; and a factor regarding the worker’s skill and initiative.”

Foxx, in the letter, said Su’s responses to May 17 questions from the committee “provided none of the requested data.”

“Your failure to provide the requested information has obstructed the committee’s oversight activities,” Foxx wrote. “This information is important because the committee is reviewing DOL’s final independent contractor rule and determining whether and how to legislate this matter.”

The committee wants to see instances, going as far back as President Joe Biden’s inauguration, of misclassification, misclassification enforcement investigations by the industry sector, and whether any misclassification probes by the industry sector have been conducted in coordination with the National Labor Relations Board and the Federal Trade Commission.

There are an estimated 70 million who provide for themselves and their families as independent contractors, a release says.

Su’s department was previously scorched for a rule for farm workers in the H-2A program that nearly two dozen attorneys general said provided “unionization protections” and placed “the interests of foreign nationals over the interests of United States citizens.” Congressmen in agriculture-strong states, including North Carolina’s David Rouzer, responded with a letter to Su.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, in a letter to Su, accused the Labor Department under Su’s leadership of trying “to sidestep Congress,” which enacted the 1935 National Labor Relations Act.