← Back to Bills
S. 664Senate116th Congress (2019-2021)In Committee

Protecting Workers’ Freedom to Organize Act

Sponsored by Sherrod BrownSen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
Introduced March 5, 2019

AI-Generated Summary

Updated April 14, 2026 at 2:33 AM UTC

The Protecting Workers’ Freedom to Organize Act would change the National Labor Relations Act to make it clearer who counts as an employee. It expands the definition so that more workers are treated as employees rather than independent contractors, and it tweaks language about an employer’s interest and the amount of time a worker spends on the job. The changes affect workers, employers, and anyone currently classified as an independent contractor.

Key Provisions

  • Adds a new rule that a person is considered an employee (not an independent contractor) unless they are free from the employer’s control, the work is outside the employer’s normal business, and the person is regularly engaged in an independent trade or profession.
  • Amends the definition to include the phrase “and for a majority of the individual’s work time” after “interest of the employer.”
  • Removes the words “assign” and “or responsibly to direct them” from the same definition paragraph.

Legislative Activity

Stay on top of the latest movement without scrolling through every action

1 earlier action
SenateIntro Referral Latest Action

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee

March 5, 2019

View full timeline
SenateIntro Referral

Introduced in Senate

March 5, 2019

SenateIntro Referral

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee

March 5, 2019

Bill Text

Latest available legislative text

Reading Mode
Latest
Raw Text PDF XML
Introduced in SenateIssued March 5, 2019

II

116th CONGRESS

1st Session

S. 664

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

March 5, 2019

Mr. Brown (for himself, Mr. Booker, Mrs. Gillibrand, Ms. Smith, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Merkley, Ms. Baldwin, Mr. Sanders, and Mr. Durbin) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

To amend the National Labor Relations Act to clarify the requirements for meeting the definition of the term employee, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Protecting Workers’ Freedom to Organize Act.

2.

Definitions under the National Labor Relations Act

Section 2 of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 152) is amended—

(1)

in paragraph (3), by adding at the end the following:

An individual performing any service shall be considered an employee (except as provided in the previous sentence) and not an independent contractor for purposes of this Act, unless—

(A)

the individual is free from control and direction in connection with the performance of the service, both under the contract for the performance of the service and in fact;

(B)

the service is performed outside the usual course of the business of the employer; and

(C)

the individual is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession, or business of the same nature as that involved in the service performed.

; and

(2)

in paragraph (11)—

(A)

by inserting and for a majority of the individual's work time after interest of the employer;

(B)

by striking assign,; and

(C)

by striking or responsibly to direct them,.