HYDE-SMITH REGISTERS OPPOSITION TO NLRB MOVE TO RECLASSIFY INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS
Signs Amicus Brief Against Backdoor Effort to Implement Failed PRO Act Provisions
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today announced she is among a dozen Senators voicing opposition to a backdoor effort by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to use regulatory changes to reclassify millions of independent contractors as employees.
Hyde-Smith signed an amicus brief to the NLRB regarding The Atlanta Opera, Inc. 371 NLRB No. 45 (2021), which could overturn established precedent for classifying workers as independent contractors under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
In their brief, the Senators challenge the NLRB proposal as a thinly-veiled attempt to institute worker classification changes included in the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act. Hyde-Smith opposes the PRO Act for its leftist provisions to expand the ability of labor unions to organize, restrain employer rights, and overturn state Right to Work laws, including the statute in Mississippi.
The brief stresses that “it is ultimately Congress’s obligation, as a political branch of government, to amend the NLRA and make any drastic changes to how and when workers are classified as independent contractors.”
“The proposed statutory change in the PRO Act, and Congress declining to adopt it, shows that Congress has neither delegated nor ignored its sole constitutional authority to amend the standard; Congress is just unwilling to do so at this time,” the Senators wrote. “Congressional opposition to the change is, in part, because many Members believe that the current approach is best adapted to a twenty-first century economy,”
“Our offices have heard from various individuals and groups worried about losing the flexibility and entrepreneurial opportunity inherent to the status of an independent contractor. Attempts to restrict independent contracting by Congress or the Board overwhelming hurt individuals who have taken advantage of the ‘gig economy’ particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.” the Senators said.
U.S. Senators Mike Braun (R-Ind.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) led the amicus brief. Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kan.), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) also signed the brief.
Click here to read the Senators’ brief.
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