How labor policy may change under Biden administration

Be ready for major changes to national labor policy when President- elect Joe Biden enters the Oval Office. The changes will likely aim to increase union membership by (1) facilitating organizing, (2) shortening election periods, and (3) reducing the bargaining period for the first collective bargaining agreement. The Biden administration will seek to implement the changes by using legislation and revisiting Trump-era National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions.

First order of business: PRO Act

In February 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2019, one of the most significant pieces of labor legislation since the Taft-Hartley Amendments of 1947. The PRO Act didn't pass the Republican-controlled Senate.

Among other things, the PRO Act would ease employee classification, facilitate faster organizations, and shorten representative elections by codifying several Obama-era decisions and rulemakings. Most significantly, the Act would substantially alter the test for determining whether an independent contractor is really an employee by codifying the "ABC test" used by the California Department of Labor.

Under the ABC test, to prove a worker is an independent contractor rather than an employee, the employer must show: