Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) issued the following statement from its vice president of government affairs, Kristen Swearingen, on the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) announcement of a proposed rule that will rescind and replace the 2024 Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act final rule.
“ABC strongly supports the DOL’s proposed rule to rescind the Biden-era 2024 independent contractor final rule and replace it with a common-sense proposal similar to the ABC-supported 2021 final rule,” said Swearingen. “The 2024 final rule creates an ambiguous and difficult-to-interpret standard for determining independent contractor status. Under the rule’s multifactor test, employers are forced to guess which factors should be given the greatest weight in making the determination.
“Instead of promoting much-needed economic growth and protecting legitimate independent contractors, the 2024 final rule results in more confusion and expensive, time-consuming, unnecessary, and often frivolous litigation, as both employers and workers will not understand who qualifies as an independent contractor,” Swearingen added.
“ABC is pleased to see the DOL is proposing to simplify and clarify the factors for determining when a worker is an independent contractor versus an employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act,” said Swearingen. “ABC looks forward to providing comments to the DOL on the proposed rule.”
ABC, its Southeast Texas chapter, the Coalition for Workforce Innovation and five other organizations are challenging the 2024 final rule in federal court, which is currently pending.
