New forms of work and platform work: California case study

In California (USA), Assembly Bill 5, or AB-5, was signed in 2019 and came into effect in January 2020.1 It introduced a presumption of an employment relationship between workers and platforms, unless a platform proves that a worker is an independent contractor. To determine platform workers’ status, the law prescribes the use of the so-called “ABC test”. A platform worker is classified as an employee, unless a platform proves that:

A. The worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact;

B. The worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and

C. The worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.