Willenken Files Amicus Brief on Behalf of Communities-of-Color Organizations in Handy Worker Classification Case

    Partner Amelia Sargent and senior associate Kenneth Trujillo-Jamison recently filed an amicus curiae brief in San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of seven community-based organizations in People of the State of California v. Handy Technologies, Inc.

    In this case, the District Attorneys of Los Angeles and San Francisco seek a preliminary injunction to require Handy, a job referral service that maintains an app-based platform to connect customers and household service providers, to treat the businesses using Handy’s platform as employees.

    Willenken’s brief, filed in support of Handy, explains that the injunction sought by the District Attorneys would impose irreparable harm on workers of color and minority-owned businesses, as well as on communities of color. The injunction would force Handy to suspend its operations indefinitely. That would, in turn, cause workers of color and minority-owned businesses to lose a valuable means of finding work opportunities, supplementing the jobs they get through word of mouth, social media, or other forms of advertising. And the injunction would cause people and communities of color to lose a useful platform to connect with businesses capable of performing the household services they desire.

    Willenken also argues that issuing the injunction now, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, would compound the significant toll people and communities of color have already suffered from the pandemic.

    Willenken has extensive experience in the heavily litigated issue of worker classification under the “ABC Test,” introduced in Dynamex Operations West Inc. v. Superior Court. For example,in Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising International, Inc., et al., our attorneys, led by partner Jason Wilson, handled an appeal before the California Supreme Court considering whether the Dynamex test applied retroactively.

    Read the brief here.

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