The Harmonization of Coverage Act of 2017 has the full support of travel agents' leading voice.
Introduced by U.S. Representatives Diane Black (R-TN) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) this week, the bill would unify various federal tests by adopting a common-law test to determine if a worker is an employee or an independent contractor.
The primary aim of the bill is to protect self-employed entrepreneurs like travel agents and their clients while making it easier for the government to ensure workers are classified properly.
"This bill represents the final act for Congress to finish its work on harmonizing the definition of employee," said The Coalition to Promote Independent Entrepreneurs' Executive Director, Russell Hollrah, in a statement. "We applaud Representatives Black and Stefanik for introducing this bill to bring much-needed certainty and consistency to this term for purposes of federal statutes."
"We urge Congress to act quickly and pass this bill."
The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), which is a member of the coalition, also issued a statement backing the legislation.
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"With an estimated 20,000 independent contractors and counting in our industry, having clear rules of the road in terms of who's an employee and who's an independent contractor is critical. The current patchwork system-multiple federal 'tests' and essentially 50 different state tests-is anything but clear," the organization stated.
"The Harmonization of Coverage Act would start to address this issue by harmonizing the federal tests into the common sense 'right of control' test, and we applaud Congresswomen Black and Stefanik for their leadership in tackling this challenge. Agency owners and Independent Contractors alike deserve clarity so they can focus on what they do best-selling travel-and H.R. 3825 would provide that clarity."
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