Author: Bria S. Beaufort

What Employers Should Know About Biden’s AI Executive Order

On October 30, 2023, President Biden issued an Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The sweeping Executive Order sets out standards for safe and secure uses of AI with an emphasis on privacy protections, the promotion of innovation and competition, avoiding discrimination and bias, and supporting workers. The Executive Order requires principles and best practices to be established by the Secretary of Labor within 180 days of the Executive Order. The principles and best practices will provide guidance for employers to “mitigate AI’s potential harms to employees’ well-being and maximize its potential benefits.” The principles and best practices must address the following, • job-displacement risks and career opportunities related to AI, including effects on job skills and evaluation of applicants and workers • labor standards and job quality, including issues related to the equity, protected activity, compensation, health, and safety implications of AI in the workplace • implications for workers of employers’ AI-related collection and use of data about them, including transparency, engagement, management, and activity protected under worker-protection laws Agencies will likely adopt the Secretary of Labor’s guidelines, as appropriate and consistent with applicable laws. We can also expect guidance on AI workforce development, as well as employee monitoring, which would ensure that workers whose...

New Jersey Supreme Court Rules on Worker Classification Under the “ABC Test”

In East Bay Drywall, LLC v. Department of Labor & Workforce Development, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld a determination by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development (“the Department”) that 16 workers (individuals and business entities) were misclassified as independent contractors, even though East Bay had provided business registrations and insurance certificates for the workers in question. By way of background, East Bay is a drywall installation business that hires installers on a per-job basis. The Department conducted a routine audit and determined that 16 of East Bay’s workers were improperly classified as independent contractors, instead of employees, and thus directed the company to pay unemployment and temporary disability benefit contributions for these misclassified workers. East Bay challenged the audit results and requested a full evidentiary hearing, which was held before an administrative law judge in the Office of Administrative Law (OAL). At the hearing, East Bay’s principal, Benjamin DeScala, testified that once a project bid was accepted, East Bay contacted workers who were free to accept or decline East Bay’s offer of work, and some had even left mid-project if they found a better opportunity. DeScala explained that some workers had told him they had worked for other businesses, but he did not provide any evidence to support that claim. DeScala also stated...