This bill could upend the 'gig economy'
In California, lawmakers are considering legislation that could make Uber and Lyft drivers employees
In the spring of 2018, the California Supreme Court came down with a landmark ruling, Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles, which makes it much harder for businesses to classify (or misclassify) their workers as ‘independent contractors’ rather than employees. The distinction matters, since employees have access to a whole host of workplace protection laws that contractors don’t.
But the Dynamex decision hasn’t really been enforced over the last year, and major companies and industries have been lobbying furiously to neutralize it. Especially companies like Uber and Lyft, which make drivers-as-independent-contractors central to their business model.
There’s a consequential bill—known as AB 5—making its way through the California state legislature this summer that would effectively codify and expand the Dynamex decision. Labor experts say it could have huge implications for hundreds of thousands of workers in California, and likely shape the direction of the debate across the country. Already Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation in Congress to narrow the scope of who can be classified as an independent contractor, and its backed by leading presidential candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris.
I have a story in The Intercept on the politics around AB5, particularly as they pertain to tech companies like Uber and Lyft working hard to carve out exemptions for their drivers in the legislation. In addition to lobbying lawmakers, they’ve been having meetings with two major unions that are helping to organize ride-share drivers in California — SEIU and the Teamsters — and there’s growing suspicion that those labor groups may be more open to leaving the drivers as independent contractors in exchange for better pay and some benefits than they’ve publicly admitted.
I spoke with labor and transportation experts, ride-share drivers, SEIU, Lyft, and others for the piece. Read it here