Blu Nail Bar
LOS ANGELES - A new law in California unfairly targets Vietnamese-Americans, a recent lawsuit filed by nail technicians says.
Various California officials are named as defendants in the May 31 lawsuit, including the heads of the Labor & Workforce Development Agency, the Department of Industrial Relations and the Board of Barbering & Cosmetology.
The suit targets Assembly Bill 5, which stopped the longstanding practice of allowing nail technicians to classify themselves as independent contractors. More than 82% of manicurists in the state are Vietnamese-American, and 85% of those are women.
In the 40 years since Vietnamese people began fleeing the country's communist regime, nail technicians have rented space from salons and worked as independent contractors. A 2018 California Supreme Court ruling threatened that, but subsequent legislation codifying that ruling provided exceptions for some workers, including those in the beauty industry.
But while barbers, cosmetologists and estheticians still enjoy that protection, the exception for manicurists ended on Dec. 31, 2024.
"There is no rational basis for this distinction between nail technicians and other categories in the beauty industry, all of which must be licensed by the California Board of Barbering & Cosmetology and all of which have for decades operated their own businesses as independent contractors," the suit says.
"Not only is there no logical or rational basis for treating nail technicians differently, but also the effect of this disparate treatment is blatant discrimination against the Vietnamese-American community."
Plaintiffs include Blu Nail Bar, Happy Nails & Spa and Holly and Hudson Nail Lounge. They are represented by Scott Wellman of Wellman & Warren, a complex business litigation firm in Laguna Hills.
The lawsuit makes three claims: Deprivation of a constitutionally protected right in violation of the 14th Amendment, violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and violation of California's Equal Protection Clause.
"Since the disparate treatment targets specifically the Vietnamese-American community, these provisions of AB-5 result in discrimination based on ethnicity."
