AB 5, the bill whose purported mission was to restore “important protections to potentially several million workers who have been denied these basic workplace rights that all employees are entitled to under the law,” is now being decried by some as a job-killer.

A lawsuit has been filed against the state on behalf of freelance writers and photojournalists, many of whom have been pink-slipped by media companies that do not want to convert them to employees. At the same time, ride-sharing companies are attempting an end-run with a ballot measure designed to carve them out of the law.