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A COURT IN California has granted an interim injunction to prevent rideshare apps Uber and Lyft from classifying their drivers as independent contractors and not employees.
The decision is part of a long-running battle about the classification of driver by the companies. California alone has 100,000 drivers across the two companies according to the state’s labour office.
The issue has become more critical during the Covid-19 pandemic, with state authorities claiming that the misclassification of drivers poses a public health risk due to a lack of access to paid sick days and medical care.
Under a California law that came into effect on 1 January, workers are considered employees unless they are free from the company’s control and perform work outside its usual line of business.
The law challenges the business model of the San Francisco-based ride-hailing platforms and others which depend on workers taking on “gigs” as independent contractors.
In May, the state of California launched a lawsuit against the two companies for the alleged misclassification of drivers and yesterday an interim injunction was granted.
A stay was put on the injunction for 10 days to allow the companies consider an appeal.
“The court has weighed in and agreed: Uber and Lyft need to put a stop to unlawful misclassification of their drivers while our litigation continues,” California Attorney General Becerra said after the decision.
While this fight still has a long way to go, we’re pushing ahead to make sure the people of California get the workplace protections they deserve. Our state and workers shouldn’t have to foot the bill when big businesses try to skip out on their responsibilities. We’re going to keep working to make sure Uber and Lyft play by the rules.
California’s lawsuits seek to recover amounts owed to all Uber and Lyft drivers, including nearly 5,000 drivers who have filed claims for owed wages, the Labor Commissioner’s Office said.
Uber has long argued it is merely a platform linking self-employed drivers with riders.
“The vast majority of California drivers want to work independently, and we’ve already made significant changes to our app to ensure that remains the case under state law,” Uber spokesman Davis White said in a previous statement.
- With reporting by © – AFP 2020
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That would be interesting if that was done with the app companies here, the app companies make more money than all the taxi drivers put together weekly maybe daily and they wouldn’t have a app company if it wasn’t for the driver workingwith them, the taxi industry is fecked here.
Just for the record i don’t work for any of these app companies.
@PMG:
Difference is Irish Taxi drivers are self employed.
They have the option to work the App system or not.
Unfortunately for them those back in work have little option as footfall from pubs nightclubs etc
@The Grand Nagus:
i know taxi drivers are self employed here and are being left high and dry by app companies and other representatives, the piont I’m making/agreeing with is the courts in California are favouring the drivers over the multi billion company to look after there drivers.
Where as sweet fanny adams has been done here by anyone NTA ,representatives connected to the Irish taxi industry, taxi drivers are run by the state technically but self employed , So if the industry is fecked they should be helping taxi drivers out and have them ready to get back to work when this covid disaster passes hopefully.
@PMG:
Well said
@PMG: no a licence doesn’t mean run by the state or close. If they want to be classified as employees then their tax status changes too.
@Craic_a_tower:
A taxi licence is like a lease , an annual lease is required by the taxi driver of the state because its it a spsv to make sure standards are been kept, also unfortunately for taxi drivers in this country they are the only industry to provide a tax clearance cert on a annual basis to be able to operate.
Also taxi drivers can’t be employees here in Ireland.
@PMG: not true I have to provide a tax cert every year so you are wrong. Still not close to saying they are employees. Most of the bad things that happened to taxi driver was a result of their own behaviour. They turned the public against taxis. What ever happened in the EU courts about deregulation? Did the old taxi badge owners get any money?
Oooopps is this going to happen right across the Uber platform, like their food delivery arm? To jurisdictions outside of LA? Disruptive economy halts disruptive tech company?
@Premier Fitters: is a company with $25b lots this year without drivers as employees, so won’t be able to get VCs to bail them this time. It was good while or lasted, but ultimately inefficient and thwarted by govts and taxis unions wanting their cut.
Es
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