"Worker protections" generally means "small business deterrents". Worker protections are great if you want a small number of large corporations to rule everything.
Hiring people is ridiculously expensive (their salary and even health care/benefits are a small fraction of the total cost), and the last thing small businesses need is even more expense to hire. Large companies can amortize with economies of scale (e.g. HR departments).
You could try to play a cat-and-mouse game (e.g., make laws that apply only to companies with more than X employees, so companies restructure so it applies to them), which then leads to laws so complicated that only large companies with dedicated lawyers could afford to navigate.
And here we are now. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" combined with "I'm from the government and I'm here to help".
Hiring people is ridiculously expensive (their salary and even health care/benefits are a small fraction of the total cost), and the last thing small businesses need is even more expense to hire. Large companies can amortize with economies of scale (e.g. HR departments).
You could try to play a cat-and-mouse game (e.g., make laws that apply only to companies with more than X employees, so companies restructure so it applies to them), which then leads to laws so complicated that only large companies with dedicated lawyers could afford to navigate.
And here we are now. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" combined with "I'm from the government and I'm here to help".