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CALIFORNIA COALITION OF TRAVEL ORGANIZATIONS
THE STATE LEGISLATIVE COALITION OF NATIONAL, STATE AND REGIONAL ASSOCIATIONS OF SELLERS OF TRAVEL Call to Action Take Action Today to Prevent the Elimination of Travel Entrepreneurs July 19, 2019 Travel advisors, tour operators, travel destinations and our industry partners are urged to take action and advocate for an amendment to a pending legislation that would disrupt the independent model that has existed for decades and provides opportunities for thousands of entrepreneurs, many of whom are small, women-owned business owners. Sign up today to visit and lobby your State Senator in the legislator’s office in your area on August 6: click here The Issue – AB 5: California legislators are considering AB 5 [Gonzalez] that would place into statute the Dynamex ABC criteria for determining when workers are considered “independent contractors” and when they are considered “employees.” Even individuals who consider themselves to clearly be “independent contractors” are subject to being deemed “employees” under this new rule if they are “in the same line of work [providing travel services]” as their host agencies. Even host agencies located outside California will be impacted if they have agents located in California. Our request is that state Senators take action to ensure that AB 5 is amended to include a provision clearly stating in the law that the Borello test rather than the Dynamex ABC test is utilized for determining the status of a Seller of Travel as either an independent contractor or employee. Since the inception of the California Seller of Travel Law 25 years ago, this state registration program and consumer protection law has acknowledged independent agents - who are primarily women and are all small business owners - as an integral part of the travel industry. They:
California Coalition of Travel Organizations The California Coalition of Travel Organizations [CCTO] is a nonprofit state government relations coalition of national, state and regional associations and consortiums of travel agents and tour operators. CCTO member organizations include individual California chapters of the American Society of Travel Agents, as well as United States Tour Operators Association, Student Youth Travel Association, Signature Travel Network, WESTA, Ensemble, PATH, Travel Leaders Network, and Virtuoso. CCTO has been actively lobbying in the State Capitol since its formation in 1987 and sponsored the legislation enacted in 1995 that established California’s Seller of Travel [SOT] Law and its landmark Travel Consumer Restitution Fund.
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Hi CCTO Board of Directors and Member Organizations:
As per President Diane Embree, following please find the link for our member organizations to distribute to their members and industry partners in our new advocacy effort: Take Action: California Travel Advisors ASTA-CCTO Day of Action on California AB 5: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/californiatraveladvisors For those who desire to utilize the CCTO call-to-action which includes an embedded link to this website, it is attached here. Thanks to everyone for your efforts - Best, Jerry Desmond, Esq. Legislative Advocate CALIFORNIA COALITION OF TRAVEL ORGANIZATIONS DESMOND & DESMOND LLC 925 L Street, Suite 260 Sacramento, CA 95814 p 916.441.4166 f 916.441.3520 e [email protected] A Message from your SoCal Chapter President
While the summer sun sizzles… Many of us have been more than a little “hot under the collar” while raging war on AB5, first with our California State Assembly, then with our California State Senate. Despite concentrated efforts by both members, (we hope that you, reading this did participate by contacting your representatives), and our executive team from Washington who traveled to Sacramento to lobby on our behalf, this bill passed in both houses. Effectively, if amendments are not placed into this bill before becoming legislation, independent contractor status in our travel industry, within the State of California will become unlawful. So, how can you help? Continue to lobby your own state assembly representative and senator, express your support of our industry’s continued dependence on travel advisors who wish to be independent contractors. Urge them to understand that this independent status is not being coerced, but a matter of individual choice. Additional argument could be that IC’s in this state could simply find host agencies in other states, thus diluting the profits of California companies and their taxes paid to the state. And for the fun topics this summer…! We have long wished to create “ASTA on the Go” Events throughout our SoCal region enabling more members to attend and participate in what our great organization has to offer. We are thrilled that our first ASTA on the Go, scheduled for July 25 at the Riverside Mission Inn has sold out…now has a waitlist for members who would like to attend. It’s with appreciation to Azamara, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean Cruise for their sponsorship that we look forward to sharing this evening with so many of our members in the inland empire. Please visit and like YOUR new, refreshed SoCal ASTA Facebook Page, #astasocal. Follow to keep up with what we’re planning for our great members and do share with colleagues…the more we communicate, the stronger we are…and it’s fun in the sun time for us all! Keep sending those great clients on vacation…and take some precious fun time for yourselves…I know how hard you work! Kindest regards, Tama Taylor Holve SoCal ASTA Chapter President |
