Sheehy Testifies on AB 5 Fixes Before U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Advisory Panel
On May 23, 2022, Tom Sheehy, Principal and Founder of Sheehy Strategy Group, testified before the California Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights regarding the civil rights implications of California’s controversial AB 5 legislation. Other panelists included AB 5’s author Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, and Assemblyman Kevin Kiley.
Known as the “Gig Worker Bill,” AB 5 codified the California Supreme Court’s sweeping Dynamex decision. The decision and subsequent law reclassified many contract workers requiring businesses to hire them as W-2 employees or not at all, creating a host of issues outlined in Sheehy’s comments to the Committee.
Sheehy’s testimony demonstrated AB5’s potential to marginalize minorities, women, and those with disabilities, as well as the potential financial burden for small- and medium-sized businesses. Companies that were required to transition their contractors to W-2 employees pass the cost on to the consumer, making products and services less accessible to everyone.
Sheehy discussed his advocacy efforts on behalf of a large tutoring firm whose cohort of tutors consists of contract employees, mostly teachers and college students moonlighting to supplement their income. Had the firm not received a legislative exemption, AB 5 would have led to a 30 to 40 percent price increase, limiting those who could afford tutoring services, creating a two-tier system where only the most affluent students could afford tutoring, leaving lower- and middle-class families without access.
Next to be addressed were concerns from the Language Access Professionals Association (LAPA) as Sign Language Interpreters and Realtime Captioners working as independent contractors are under fire to become employees. The Americans with Disabilities Act promises to provide equal access to people with disabilities, yet the Deaf and Hard of Hearing communities are at a steep disadvantage if AB 5 disrupts the longstanding contracting model the community has come to rely on. The majority of Realtime Captioners and Sign Language Interpreters are women who enjoy the flexibility and unpredictability of the contracts because they fit around their busy schedules of raising families, working in their communities, or supplementing their income around a W-2 job.
Sheehy acknowledged Assembly Member Gonzalez’s efforts to rectify the issues presented on behalf of his client with cleanup measure AB 2257. He also expressed hope that the Legislature will be willing to address some of the remaining issues that continue to negatively impact certain niche industries.
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