“Contractors who wish to continue contributing can do so but ‘need to understand they will not be paid for future contributions.'”

When progressives in California’s media supported the Democrats in state elections, they may have forgotten that the politicians were going to enact fiscal as well as social policies.

Now that the Democrats have a continuing majority in the state legislature, the representatives have passed a measure that is designed to “protect” employees from unscrupulous employers. The new law, known as AB 5, require businesses to hire workers as employees, not independent contractors, with some exceptions.

The move has triggered one firm to cut its staff ahead of AB 5 implementation.

Hundreds of freelance writers at Vox Media, primarily those covering sports for the SB Nation site, will lose their jobs in the coming months as the company prepares for a California law to go into effect that will force companies to reclassify contractors in the state as employees. “This is a bittersweet note of thanks to our California independent contractors,” John Ness, executive director of SB Nation, wrote in a post on Monday. “In 2020, we will move California’s team blogs from our established system with hundreds of contractors to a new one run by a team of new SB Nation employees.” In a separate memo seen by CNBC, Ness said that California contractors can apply for a full-time or part-time position in California. Contractors who wish to continue contributing can do so but “need to understand they will not be paid for future contributions,” he said. “We know this may be a difficult decision, so we’re giving everyone affected 30 days to decide what works for them,” Ness added.

Approximately 200 freelance jobs will be consolidated into about two dozen full- or part-time positions.

The law, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, “makes it impossible for us to continue with our current California team site structure,” John Ness, executive director at SB Nation, said in a post on Monday, “because it restricts contractors from producing more than 35 written content ‘submissions’ per year.” The affected writers are frequent contributors to the 25 SB Nation blogs focused on California teams. The team-centric sites include Golden State of Mind, for the N.B.A.’s Warriors; Conquest Chronicles, for the University of Southern California sports; and True Blue LA, which covers baseball’s Dodgers. Many of the SB Nation writers contributed dozens of posts to the sites each year for little pay, according to filings in a related lawsuit. Mr. Ness said the cuts were also related to a “business and staffing strategy” that predated the law’s passage in September. About 20 full-time and part-time employees will replace the bloggers, said a person with knowledge of the change who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. Mr. Ness encouraged the regular freelancers to apply for those jobs.

As a bonus, freelancers found out about the new staffing structure via Twitter.

A note on our California communities: https://t.co/9OQz0YS7bm — SB Nation (@SBNation) December 16, 2019

Dude, this is wild! And it’s so vaguely worded that I can’t tell if those of us who get paid are out or not. Crazy shitty way to communicate and act, but we should expect treatment like this from Vox — Duby Dub Dubs (@GSOM_Duby) December 16, 2019

Vox Media won’t be the only company axing California freelance writers, either.

“Unfortunately, this is exactly what we predicted would happen, and exactly what we told lawmakers would happen. There is simply no incentive for digital media companies and outlets to keep working with California-based freelance writers,” California Freelance Writers United co-leader Alisha Grauso said in a statement to THR. “Even if companies aren’t misclassifying their employees, the language of the bill is simultaneously so draconian and so vague that many companies just don’t want the headache of interpretation or risk of violation. And why would they? They can simply go outside of California to find more writers.” Added Grauso, “Vox is the most high-profile outlet we’ve seen laying off writers in response to AB-5 so far, but other companies have already sent out emails to CA freelancers terminating their contracts. Others are blacklisting CA-based writers from applying to freelance gigs. Frustratingly, even if a few staff jobs are added in response to AB-5 — which is unlikely except at the biggest outlets with the deepest pockets — the handful of roles created won’t make up for the thousands of freelance writers losing steady gigs because of the bill. The math is completely upside-down and freelance writers are coming out on the losing end.”

Passing the bill before finding out what is in the bill occurs at the state as well as the federal level.

Wondered this: “Given media’s current state of crisis—unlike flourishing ride-sharing industry—it’s hard to imagine why authors of AB 5 decided to lump together…truck drivers, translators, photographers, musicians—when the real goal was to regulate Uber and Lyft.” — Juliana Jai Bolden⚜️ (@JulianaOnBeat) December 12, 2019

If the Vox Media freelances had read Legal Insurrection, they would have known the only law that remains constant in California is the one related to unintended consequences.

@GavinNewsom AB 5 has a lot of unintended consequences. * Vox Media to cut hundreds of freelance jobs ahead of changes in California gig economy laws https://t.co/DP9Lz8LNF0 — Beth Andrus (@beth_andrus) December 17, 2019

The descent of California into the bottomless pits of progressivism continues.



