By Katy Grimes at the California Globe

April 1, 2020

“If AB 5 is not immediately suspended then the consequences of the coronavirus collapse will be magnified,” former Congressman Doug Ose said in a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently. “Your action now to suspend AB5 will provide relief to over one million Californians.”

Since Assembly Bill 5 became law January 1, 2020, millions of freelance and independent contractors’ jobs have been killed. And at a time when California needs all hands on deck during the coronavirus crisis, AB 5 is preventing desperately needed health care and medical professionals who are independent contractors, from working.

Assembly Bill 5 by former labor leader Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), has significantly limited Californians’ ability to work as independent contractors and freelancers. AB 5 also randomly limits freelance writers and photographers to 35 submissions annually per media outlet, and has served to quash the independent contracting jobs of important health care and medical professionals’ during the coronavirus crisis in California.

Millions of Californians who are independent contractors, gig economy workers, and freelancers, have been calling on Governor Gavin Newsom to use his Emergency Powers to suspend Assembly Bill 5’s restrictions on independent contracting during the COVID-19 crisis.

Read more at the California Globe.