Freelancers in Los Angeles simply acquired new protections from their metropolis council! Final Friday, town of LA handed new legal guidelines that give freelancers authorized rights and protections. The brand new regulation requires that any contract between a employee and an worker for $600 or extra should be in writing and embrace a date by which the employee should be paid. Until a doc accommodates a date, there isn’t any contract and the employee should be paid inside 30 days of the work being accomplished. Employers could be sued for alleged violations of the ordinance – although each events should be LA residents.

The Freelancers Union has been proud to work with Council Member Bob Blumenfield and different advocates such because the Nationwide Writers Union and to work to move the “Freelance Is not Free” laws in LA that has been handed in different cities comparable to New York Metropolis and Seattle.

Blumenfield first filed the movement for this regulation in January 2021, saying on the time: “There are numerous Angelenos who’re working with out a contract and should not thought of ‘staff’ below federal, state and native labor legal guidelines and due to this fact want primary job safety. This is not nearly editors or designers, it is about all freelancers and impartial contractors like home employees who ‘work their tails off’ and stay weak to unfair wage disputes and different points.”

There are over 300,000 freelancers in Los Angeles, which is the second largest group of freelancers within the nation, in keeping with Blumenfield’s workplace.

The Freelancer Union’s govt director, Rafael Espinal, stated freelancers make up over a 3rd of the nation’s workforce, however that “our social infrastructure hasn’t stored up with this modification and lots of freelancers are fighting basic items like getting paid for the work they do.” .”

In accordance with Blumenfield’s workplace, almost three-fourths of freelancers expertise non-payment points.

“With the passage of this regulation, Los Angeles units the precedent for a long-awaited state and nationwide regulation that may make fee safety normal for all employees and can carry a significant victory for the a whole bunch of 1000’s of freelancers who contribute to town’s economic system,” Espinal stated . “We’re proud to have labored with LA Metropolis Council lawmakers, together with Councilman Bob Blumenfield, to make sure freelancers should not left behind.”

Whereas we welcome this laws as a primary step in defending freelancers, the Freelancers Union notes that the regulation is restrictive because it solely applies when each the freelancer and worker are LA residents. We look ahead to working with the Metropolis Council sooner or later to broaden safety protection below their iteration of Freelance Is’t Free and to start our work for a state regulation to guard all freelancers in California.