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What should have been a win for skilled trades unions has instead turned into a yearslong wait with no resolution in sight.
Assembly Bill 227 from the Nevada Legislature’s 2021 session was designed to curb the use of under-the-table workers, gig workers, and other temporary labor on construction sites, which unions have long argued are exploited by companies in the name of profit. It would be, proponents believed, progress toward addressing rampant employee misclassification within the construction industry.
As it made its way through the Legislature, AB227 was hotly debated by groups with stakes in the outcome, but it did not garner much widespread attention. It was signed into law in May 2021.
Then, in August of that year, the American Staffing Association, which had vehemently lobbied against the bill, filed a lawsuit in Nevada’s 2nd Judicial District Court challenging the new state law and requesting a temporary injunction barring it from going into effect. Judge Lynne K. Jones granted the injunction. Like the original bill, the lawsuit appears to have received little attention.