1-year delay in newspaper labor changes approved

A bill granting the newspaper industry an extra year to meet new labor standards passed its final legislative hurdle, gaining Assembly approval Monday.

Assembly Bill 323, dubbed the “Save Local Journalism Act,” passed on a 60-2 vote Tuesday after gaining Senate approval, 39-0, late the previous night.

The bill, authored by Assemblymember Blanca Rubio, D-Baldwin Park, was amended to give the industry one additional year before the state’s controversial Assembly Bill 5 forces changes to longstanding newspaper delivery practices. Originally, AB 323 offered a twoyear grace period. The bill now goes to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature.

Newspaper publishers have warned that without AB 323, jobs would be lost and the creation and distribution of printed news editions would be cut. The industry’s previous one-year extension from AB 5’s limitations expires at year’s end.

“It is so gratifying to know that the vast majority of our elected state legislators understand that without a free press there is no democracy and that without journalism there is no one watching to keep it safe,” said Charles Champion, CEO of the California News Publishers Association trade group, who expects Newsom’s will sign the bill.

AB 5, signed into law in 2019, is forcing many companies to recategorize independent contractors as employees. The law codifies a 2018 ruling by the state’s Supreme Court that said workers misclassified as independent contractors lose various workplace rights and protections.

State Sen. John Moorlach, R-Costa Mesa, expressed frustration that businesses such as newspaper distribution are being upended by what was once essentially an income tax dispute — the Dynamex court case about truck drivers’ workplace rights. The fix, AB 5, has overhauled much of the California workplace.

“The legislature should have just fixed the issues in Dynamex,” Moorlach said. “Instead they took a billy club to employers … and the Democrats just won’t let go.”

To Moorlach, the need for industry exemptions like AB 323 shows how flawed AB 5 is. He would prefer, at a minimum, a statewide delay in AB 5 implementation for all industries until the pandemic and its economic fallout are history.

In fact, state Sen. Pat Bates, R-Laguna Niguel, offered an AB 323 amendment so newspapers’ relief would have no sunset date. It failed along party lines.

AB 5’s author, Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, DSan Diego, was one of the two “no” votes against AB 323. She spoke before the vote, saying while she supports local journalism, “I cannot condone or support an unsustainable business model that operates at the expense of low-wage workers.”