Work is a job. California just said it

Friday, September 13, 2019, 2:48 pm

By Michelle Chen

The carpool industry seems to have been on the verge of being damaged, mocking the rules, filling the streets with cars and making astronomical sums on the Wall Street capital. But California has just debunked the economic model of Uber and Lyft with innovative legislation aimed at curbing the "free market economy."

The law, Bill 5 of the Assembly (AB5), was passed by an overwhelming majority in the California Senate this week and is expected to be signed soon by Governor Gavin Newsom. It sets a clear standard, called "ABC test", to ensure that employers correctly categorize workers as independent contractors, taking into account the degree of control exercised by the company over their working conditions. Under the law, an independent contractor is defined as a worker with real autonomy: a person who (a) is not directly controlled by the company, (b) works in the same business or the same field, regardless of that business, and (c) is "independently established" as the owner of a separate business in the same sector. Under AB5, if you're a carpool driver and your livelihood depends on the routes your app connects to our smartphone every hour, you're probably an employee under the law of California.

The ABC test will codify the decision made last year in a landmark case in California's Supreme Court, Dynamex Operations West, Inc. c. Superior Court of Los Angeles. The Court ruled in favor of the delivery service workers who felt that they deserved to be classified in the category employees because they were obliged to wear the uniform of the company and to To display its logo while they were legally deemed "independent". One of the main objectives of the AB5 legislation is to stop employers "A widespread abuse and misuse of workers as independent contractors, to deny them rights and protections in employment, often emphasizing that their workers are only users of the application.

Once classified as employees under state law, workers in the sector – not only platform-based workers, but also nail cleaning technicians, home repair workers and dog walkers – would have access to the minimum wage 'compensation.

However, Uber and Lyft both continue to resist AB5. Uber even indicated that he was not considering complying with the law once it came into force in early 2020. The company says neither companies nor many of their drivers want to be bound by state labor laws and preferring to drive Uber as an occasional hobby.

But thousands of drivers are already organizing in California to have more power over their working conditions. According to Brian Dolber, organizer of Rideshare Drivers United, a California-based 5,000-driver union, AB5 is paving the way for formal unionization. But United carpool drivers have not yet decided what form the union will take. For now, he said, "We really put the voice of the drivers first." Dolber added: "We want to continue organizing the drivers and let the drivers decide how they want their union to be structured."

Critics of AB5 point to the potential loss of "flexibility" once workers in the sector are considered employees. However, workers' rights advocates reject the issue of flexibility as a preoccupation with the enemies of the bill. Nayantara Mehta of the National Employment Law Project says current labor laws do not automatically exclude irregular hours such as union nurses and construction workers. In addition, AB5 deals with the degree of control exercised by a firm over a worker, and not with the way the schedule is defined. "The courts have found that just because a worker has a flexible schedule does not mean that she is transformed into running her own business, which is a real reference for independent contractor status," says Mehta.

In addition, the fixation on flexibility eludes the reality of many workstations. Workers' schedules may be unstable, but not by choice: often, workers are stuck on their phones to be able to fend for themselves, or be paid for each manicure or burger they deliver. Their salary could be so disappointing that workers will let go of exhaustion.

"We drive and drive and drive," said Nicole Moore of Rideshare Drivers United, who helped coordinate a carpool strike in May. "We do not dine with our children, we do not do everything we are supposed to do in life. Yet we expect to pay rent, put food on the table and try to make life better for our children. "

This is not the first time that Uber's independent contractor system has been challenged. Various trials in recent months have sought to establish the formal labor rights of workers, with mixed results. By March, Uber had successfully launched two trials, which resulted in $ 20 million and 13,600 drivers, not to mention their non-employee status. At the same time, the growing efforts to organize carpool drivers, particularly the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, have strengthened the protection of workers at the national and local levels, including a minimum wage for drivers in New York.

Faced with the prospect of thousands of new employees raising their payroll, the leaders of retail companies are panicked. Uber and Lyft spent a total of about $ 750,000 to lobby the California legislature, along with other professional and industry associations that sought to be exempted from the law. In the end, Uber and Lyft did not benefit from the waiver that they hoped for in the bill, but other professions – real estate agents and insurance agents, doctors, engineers, architects and lawyers – have been exempted.

Today, Uber, Lyft and DoorDash would unite to fight AB5 through a well – established political strategy in California: invest $ 90 million in a voting initiative asking voters to vote. reverse the law and put in place a different legal regime for the self-employed, which benefits and standards of remuneration.

The leaders of the economy gig are therefore resolved to fight the law to the end. But in this next series of legal battles, California's new law, based on a Supreme Court ruling and reflecting growing public disenchantment with the titans of the big economy, could finally put a damper on regulatory regulations. platform economy.

Moore hopes the law will help narrow the gap between Uber leaders and drivers. "There is no difference between my humanity and their humanity," said Sha, adding, "The basic American agreement states that yes, be innovative, become a millionaire, build your own business, but the American compromise stipulates that you will have these millions with the people doing the work in your company, so that they can also afford to take a Lyft. "