II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 338 

To promote the general health and well-being of individuals accessing work 

through digital marketplace companies, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 22, 2021 

Mr. BRAUN (for himself and Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina) introduced the 

following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 

Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To promote the general health and well-being of individuals 

accessing work through digital marketplace companies, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Helping Gig Economy 

5 Workers Act of 2021’’. 

6 SEC. 2. DIGITAL MARKETPLACE COMPANY SAFE HARBOR. 

7 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

8 (1) COVID–19 EMERGENCY PERIOD.—The 

9 term ‘‘COVID–19 emergency period’’ means the peVerDate Sep 11 2014 16:05 Feb 28, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S338.IS S338

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•S 338 IS

1 riod beginning March 15, 2020, and ending on the 

2 later of— 

3 (A) December 31, 2021; or 

4 (B) the date of expiration of the public 

5 health emergency declared by the Secretary of 

6 Health and Human Services under section 319 

7 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 

8 247d) on January 31, 2020, with respect to 

9 COVID–19. 

10 (2) DIGITAL MARKETPLACE COMPANY.—The 

11 term ‘‘digital marketplace company’’ means a busi12 ness entity affecting commerce that— 

13 (A) maintains an online-enabled applica14 tion or platform to facilitate the exchange of 

15 goods or services by users of the online-enabled 

16 application or platform; 

17 (B) licenses access to an online-enabled ap18 plication or platform to facilitate the exchange 

19 of goods or services; and 

20 (C) does not require a licensee using the 

21 online-enabled application or platform to gen22 erate business to accept any specific job request 

23 as a condition of maintaining access to the enti24 ty’s online-enabled application or platform. 


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1 (3) INDIVIDUAL ACCESSING WORK THROUGH A

2 DIGITAL MARKETPLACE COMPANY.—The term ‘‘indi3 vidual accessing work through a digital marketplace 

4 company’’ means an individual who— 

5 (A) is provided with the option to accept or 

6 reject job requests through an online-enabled 

7 application or platform maintained by a digital 

8 marketplace company; and 

9 (B) provides services to digital platform 

10 consumers upon connection through a digital 

11 network maintained by the digital marketplace 

12 company in exchange for compensation or pay13 ment of a fee. 

14 (b) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi15 sion of law, in order to promote the general health and 

16 well-being of individuals accessing work through digital 

17 marketplace companies and to facilitate financial assist18 ance during public health emergencies, actions described 

19 in subsection (c) taken by a digital marketplace company 

20 during the COVID–19 emergency period shall not be used 

21 under any Federal, State, or local law, ordinance, or regu22 lation as evidence for the purposes of— 

23 (1) determining whether an individual accessing 

24 work through the digital marketplace company is an 

25 employee or independent contractor; or 


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1 (2) determining whether the digital marketplace 

2 company is the joint employer of an individual who 

3 is providing services on behalf of another company. 

4 (c) PROTECTED ACTIONS.—The actions described in 

5 this subsection are— 

6 (1) providing financial assistance to individuals 

7 who previously accessed work through the digital 

8 marketplace company but are unable to work be9 cause of health or safety concerns; 

10 (2) directly providing benefits that are related 

11 to the health or safety of individuals accessing work 

12 through the digital marketplace company; 

13 (3) providing training or information related to 

14 the health or safety of such individuals or the public; 

15 (4) providing medical or cleaning supplies to 

16 such individuals; 

17 (5) performing health checks on such individ18 uals; 

19 (6) providing medical testing to such individ20 uals; and 

21 (7) taking any action, including those required 

22 or suggested by any Federal, State, or local law, or23 dinance, order, or directive of any type, that is in24 tended to protect public health and safety. 

Æ 


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