quick update

As many of you may know or have heard, Senate Budget Amendment 260 was withdrawn last night. What we've been told from Senator McGee's office is that consensus could not be reached.

However, just because the amendment did not pass as part of the Senate Budget does not mean it's dead. Instead, the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce redrafted House Bill 1844 today and reported it out favorably. This means that it moves on to another committee before making it to the House floor for a vote before the end of the session in July.

We do not yet know what the revised language in HB 1844 includes, but we've been told it will incorporate some language from the withdrawn Amendment 260.

As soon as we know what the new language is and to which committee the amendment is headed next, we will update this space -- likely early next week. At that point, we encourage you to call your representatives frequently to make your voices heard.

Language of the new amendments

There are currently three amendments to the Independent Contractor law up for vote as part of the 2011 Budget -- Amendments 200, 207, and 260. You can read them here by clicking on the appropriate number. Although Amendments 200 and 207 would be helpful solutions, we feel that their chances of passing are slim. Amendment 260 is the one that Senator Thomas McGee's office worked to put together and seems to have the greatest chance of passing.

In a nutshell: Amendment 260 exempts from Prong 2 of the current law those freelancers who work from their place of residence and who register with the Secretary of State. The amendment also includes provisions to protect employees who "may be coerced, threatened or intimidated into establishing an independent business."

Please take a look at the language in Amendment 260. We believe that this is a small step forward in helping Massachusetts Independent Contractors get back to work. We recognize that this language may still be problematic for some of you -- namely, those of you who do not work in your place of residence. 

If you agree with the language in Amendment 260, please call your State Senators on Monday, May 24th, to ask for their support.

If you do not agree with the language in Amendment 260, we urge you to call Senator Thomas McGee's office (617-722-1350) and state why the language doesn't work. We don't know whether the language can be changed at this point (before the Senate Session on Tuesday, May 25th), but they should hear from you and understand how the amendment language affects your ability to work.

Please leave us your comments below so we can gauge your impressions of the language. 

Don't forget to watch the Senate Session live on Tuesday, May 25th here.

Update and Call to Action

Senator Thomas McGee and others have been working on language to amend the Independent Contractor Law (M.G.L. Chapter 149, Section 148b). This language attempts to allow Massachusetts Independent Contractors to get back to work while protecting those who were being misclassified. The language will be finalized in the next few days and should be available here by Friday evening. We will put the language on the blog as soon as it becomes available. 

This language is part of an amendment to the Senate Budget, which will be deliberated on Tuesday, May 25th. You can watch this debate online here.

If you agree with the language, contact your State Senators on Monday to ask them to vote for this amendment! Find out who your state senator is in the sidebar at the right.

House Bill 1844, by the way, is still alive.  A committee report on that bill should be coming out on May 28th. After that, we will have to follow its progress toward a vote.

Attention Western Mass Independent Contractors!

A reporter from WFCR/NPR News in Western Mass is looking to talk to you about your experiences with the Independent Contractor Misclassification Law. If you are an independent contractor living and working in Western Mass (or know one) and would like to be a part of a features story, please contact:

Jill Kaufman
88.5 WFCR, NPR News and Music for Western New England
(413) 577-0657 (desk)
(413) 545-0103 (news room)
jkaufman@wfcr.org

SENATE TO DEBATE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BILL WHICH CONTAINS AN INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR CHANGE

PLEASE TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION

The language from HB.1844 - An Act Relative to Independent Contractors has been added as an amendment to the Senate Economic Development Bill S. 2345. It will be debated this Thursday, April 1st. Call your State Senator and Senate President Therese Murray (617-722-1500) to support the Independent Contractor Law Amendment in the Economic Development Bill (Amendment #4). To find your State Senator go to http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenus.htm.

Following is the language in Amendment 4:

Messrs. Tisei, Tarr, Knapik and Hedlund move to amend the bill (Senate, No. 2345) by inserting at the end thereof the following:

“SECTION X. Section 148B of chapter 149 of the Massachusetts General Laws, as amended by section 26 of chapter 193 of the acts of 2004, is hereby amended by striking out paragraph (a) and inserting in place the following new paragraph: -

(a) For the purpose of this chapter and chapter 151, an individual performing any service, except as authorized under this chapter, shall be considered to be an employee under those chapters unless:-

(1) the individual is free from control and direction in connection with the performance of theservice, both under his contract for the performance of service and in fact; and
(2) the service is performed outside the usual course of the business of the employer; or,
(3) the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business of the same nature as that involved in the service performed.”

If you would like to read the bill for debate in its entirety, here is the link:
http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/senate/186/st02pdf/st02345.pdf
The link for the amendments that will also be debated during the Senate’s consideration of the primary bill S.2345 is: http://www.mass.gov/legis/senate/s2345_amendments.htm. These amendments include the change to the Independent Contractor law (Amendment #4).

Note that House Bill 1844 is still alive in another committee. The exact language used in 1844 is covered in the amendment above. It is another way to get this legislation passed.

Please tell as many people as you can to contact the Senate President and their State Senator urging them to support Amendment #4 for S 2345. Your phone calls really matter!

Update on Committee Decision and Globe Article

Busy week! Here's an update for you:

 

Per the Committee office, they have officially asked for an extension to this bill.  They have asked for 45 days but will probably get less time.  The extension has to be approved by the House and Senate but will be done in an informal session.  The reason is that the committee can't make a decision and is considering whether to make changes to the language of the bill.  

 

This has turned out to be a hot topic, and the committee's received the most calls ever on this bill. You can call the House side of the committee at (617) 722-2014 and the Senate side of the committee at (617) 722-1350). Even better, reach out to your Representatives and Senators! Use the link at right to find out who your representatives are. The more they hear from us, the less likely they are to ignore the issue!

 

There is a Boston Globe article in the works about this law and the people it's affected. When we know its publication date (very soon), we will inform you. Continue to watch this space for more news!

Other States, Too?

It looks like other states are following suit regarding independent contractor misclassification. You can read about it here:

U.S. Cracks Down on Contractors as Tax Dodge

This makes it that much more important that Massachusetts gets it right first so it can be a model for other states. We can start the trend by protecting workers that are being misclassified in addition to protecting the rights of individuals who want to work as independent contractors.

Contact your representatives today!

Special thanks to a fellow freelancer, Jason, for bringing this article to our attention!

Legislative update

Since the Jan. 27th committee hearing on the bills to amend this law, I have spoken with the office of the Committee on Labor and Work Force Development to find out about the progress of House Bill 1844 and Senate Bill 670. They don't know when they will meet on these bills, because there are many bills they are deciding on. However all bills need to be reported out by March 17. I will keep calling to follow up on this.

The report can be: Favorable but it then might go to a steering committee to decide what to do next, Ought to Pass, or Study. I assume there is a less favorable report, but they didn't mention that. One of the people I spoke with sounded quite positive, saying that we had the most people testifying for a bill that was heard by this committee. They suggested that we all contact the Speaker's office, Governor's office, and our Representativess and Senators. I assume this contact should wait until after the committee reports out.

If you know of anyone who still might want to provide written testimony, the committee is still taking this testimony. Since they couldn't tell me when they will confer on the bills, this testimony should be sent very soon. Testimony that arrives after they confer on this is put in a file for the future (whatever that means). Send the testimony to Ryan.Whalen@state.ma.us.

We will keep you up to date with any progress with these bills. Keep checking this blog for this information.