New rule by Biden administration takes effect March 11, challenges worker definition in U.S.

The freelance writer and editor world is in an uproar over the Biden administration‘s new rule which will challenge companies to treat some workers as independent contractors.

A group of writers and editors who freelance, Reuters reports, have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Labor in which they claim the new rule is illegal and should be eliminated.

Four freelancers filed a lawsuit in Georgia federal court Tuesday of last week. The lawsuit alleges the that new work rule is vague enough to violate the U.S. Constitution. Plaintiffs will seek a temporary order to block the rule while the lawsuit goes through the court system. The group of freelancers is represented by a libertarian group called the Pacific Legal Foundation.

The Biden administration’s rule will take effect March 11, and is expected to increase labor costs in American industries that rely on freelance labor, including trucking, manufacturing, healthcare and app-based “gig” services.

While the department did not respond to Reuters request for comment, the department did say the rule’s intention is to clarify the test that determines whether workers are independent contractors or employees entitled to legal protections under U.S. law such as overtime and minimum wage.

The freelancers who filed the lawsuit, however, said the department failed to explain why a simpler 2021 Trump-era rule favored by business groups was abandoned. The 2021 rule states that worker classification is determined by a company’s control over an employee and an employee’s opportunity for profit or loss. But the new rule considers the permanence of a job, degree of skill and initiative required and whether the work is integral to a company’s business.

“Businesses are given no useful guidance on the scope of the statute and cannot structure their conduct to comply with its demands,” the freelancers said in the lawsuit.

The workers said they have “a reasonable fear that they will lose business due to uncertainty or fear of liability risks under the Department’s new rule.”