Whenever I used to hear the words,second time around, that late 70’s/early80’s r&b song would always come to mind. Those days at the skate ranch will always be memorable. But enough about my r&b infused memories. The second time around that I’m currently referring to involves independent contractor legislation.
In the last few months there has been legislation that has been reintroduced in both the house and senate that were initially introduced in Congress’s last session. HR 5107 and S. 3254 both of which share the same name, the Employee Misclassification Prevention Act , have made their way back onto the floor in hopes of gaining approval from the committees and being sent to the floor for a vote. These two pieces of legislation are not the only items receiving a second chance as the Taxpayer Responsibility, Accountability and Consistency Act of 2009 (S. 2882 & H.R. 3408) has also received a potential second opportunity.
Why give these bills another shot when they had their chance in the last session? Simply put, worker misclassification is HOT. Everywhere you read, someone seems to be talking about it. In the last session of Congress(2007 -2008), most of these bills were introduced in the latter half of 2008 when the session was coming to a close and therefore the legislation could not gain any traction. Another thought could be that the pieces of legislation were not appropriately written therefore there was never going to be any takers. Whatever the real reason is, it’s hard to argue that worker misclassification was a minor blip on the radar back then and now it’s becoming a black hole.
Will these new pieces of reincarnated legislation find their way on to the President’s desk? Well that’s tough to say. They could run into similar obstacles as their predaccessors. What I do know is that if these bills fail to advance again, we might as well nickname them phoenix. With the independent contractor landscape always changing, it’s hard to believe that they won’t rise again from the ashes.
