Courtesy of the Minnesota Trucking Association Friday, March 6, 2009 Posting:

Despite vigorous opposition from the Minnesota Trucking Association and the courier industry, House File 813 advanced to the floor of the Minnesota House of Representatives. This Teamsters-backed bill, authored by Representative Sheldon Johnson (DFL-St. Paul), dramatically alters the definition of an independent contractor (IC) in the trucking industry. The bill passed out of the House Jobs and Commerce Committee on Tuesday along a strict party line vote. It is clear the Teamsters have made this their top priority for this legislative session and are calling in their chips from legislators they supported during last year’s election.

This bill is bad for trucking in at least three key ways: 1) It eliminatesthe current clear six-factor test for defining ICs in the trucking industry for purposes of unemployment insurance and replaces it with a much broader ABC test. The net effect is that it will be easier for the State to classify an IC as an employee, 2) It creates less uniformity among the definitions used by the various state agencies for determining IC status, and 3) It directs state agencies to conduct targeted audits of trucking companies in an effort to proactively find instances of employee “misclassification.”

The battle is far from over. The MTA has introduced its own IC “reform” bill, Senate File 733, which should be scheduled for a hearing in the Minnesota Senate in the near future. Look for coming action alerts regarding next steps you can take to stop the Teamsters bill and advance the MTA bill.