How does California AB5 Bill Affect Hollywood?

[Dr. Evil]

California legislature passes AB5 gig-work bill, which could turn contractors into employees

So if it becomes law, does this affect Hollywood in any way? I ask this because practically everyone in Hollywood is an independent contractor: writers, directors, actors, film crew. Take for example, Dwayne Johnson. If this bill becomes law, would he be allowed to do movies for every studio as he has been? Or will he be forced to stick to one if the bill passes? Even if one has a production deal with one studio, that does not prevent them from working for another studio in a different capacity.

Or is Hollywood exempt from this and they go about business as usual? I would think it's business as usual.

 

[jmc]

I often wonder why studios don't hire their own in house talent.

 

[metaphysician]

The fact that people like actors routinely work for multiple companies is precisely why, under this law, they would still be independent contractors. The issue with companies like Uber is that their employees do, in fact, work like employees for them. An Uber driver does not negotiate a contract with pay for work done, whereas an actor ( or a director, writer, etc ) does. It also helps that all the relevant Hollywood workers are already unionized, and have union rules applied to their contracts.

The problem with Uber and Uber's business model is not so much that it claims the drivers are independent contractors. Its that Uber claims they are independent contractors, who hire *Uber* to do work for them, rather than the other way around. Uber wants to pretend that they are just a service provider selling their services to a bunch of independent drivers.