{"id":24793,"date":"2023-04-27T19:22:52","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T19:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-senate-panel-advances\/"},"modified":"2023-04-27T19:23:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T19:23:16","slug":"us-senate-panel-advances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/us-senate-panel-advances\/","title":{"rendered":"US Senate panel advances Biden’s labor secretary choice, opposed by gig worker apps"},"content":{"rendered":"

(This April 26 story has been corrected to show that the trade group Flex has not taken an official position on the nomination in paragraph 11)<\/p>\n

By Daniel Wiessner<\/p>\n

(Reuters) – A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday voted along party lines to advance President Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. labor secretary, Julie Su, to the full Senate for what will be a close vote due to heavy opposition by Republican lawmakers and business groups worried about regulation of the gig economy.<\/p>\n

The Democrat-led Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee voted 11-10 to approve Su, a civil rights lawyer and former California labor commissioner who has served as a deputy labor secretary since 2021.<\/p>\n

Su needs at least 50 votes in the Senate, where Democrats have a slim 51-49 majority and it was unclear whether she will muster the support of several moderate Democrats. <\/p>\n

Biden’s nominee to lead the U.S. Labor Department office that enforces wage laws failed to win Senate confirmation last year after industry opposition and Democratic defections. <\/p>\n

If Su is confirmed, she will replace Marty Walsh, who stepped down as labor secretary last month to become executive director of the National Hockey League players’ union. <\/p>\n

Biden and supporters of Su’s nomination, including labor unions, have cited her record in California of cracking down on wage theft, protecting trafficked workers and enforcing workplace safety standards.<\/p>\n

In California, Su supported state laws that classified some independent contractors as employees entitled to benefits such as a minimum wage, sick time and healthcare. Using contractors can be up to 30% cheaper for companies than employees.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Labor proposed a similar federal rule in October that is expected to be finalized in the coming months. <\/p>\n

Industry groups representing companies in the ride-hailing, delivery and other sectors using contractors have launched an aggressive campaign to oppose Su’s nomination. <\/p>\n

Kristin Sharp, CEO of trade group Flex, whose members include Uber Technologies Inc, Lyft Inc and DoorDash Inc, said in a statement that Su has not sufficiently addressed concerns about her position on worker classification. Flex has not taken an official position on Su\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next Labor Secretary must embrace the flexible earning opportunities that app-based platforms have unleashed for millions of Americans,” Sharp said.<\/p>\n

\n

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and David Gregorio)<\/p>\n

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(This April 26 story has been corrected to show that the trade group Flex has not taken an official position on the nomination in paragraph 11) By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) – A U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday voted along party lines to advance President Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. labor secretary, Julie Su, to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":24794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-24793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3P0SX-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24793"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26748,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24793\/revisions\/26748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}