LOS ANGELES – A spokeswoman for an advocacy group defending the right of Uber drivers to remain independent contractors said that forcing them to become employees would end the freedom of “gig economy” jobs.
"We think this is another malicious legal action against [ride-hailing company] drivers," Stacey Wells of Protect App-based Drivers and Services told the Southern California Record. “It's a waste of time and legal resources, and it's clearly politically motivated”
City attorneys in Los Angeles and San Diego have joined forces with California Attorney General Xavier Becerra in seeking a court injunction to require drivers of Uber and Lyft to classify their current freelance drivers as employees. California sued Uber and Lyft in May, alleging the two companies are depriving their drivers of workers benefits.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra
| California Attorney General's website
The lawsuit comes on the heels of the passage of Assembly Bill 5, which took effect last January, mandating stricter rules for drivers to be classified as independent contractors. The law gave Becerra the power to force companies to provide employee benefits such as minimum wages, overtime pay and workers comp.
Uber had sued California in late 2019, saying that AB5 was unconstitutional.
A ballot initiative will set the question before the state's voters in November. Wells said attempting to force the issue with a court injunction when the question is to be voted on is bad timing.
“Asking a judge to make this decision 100 days before the voters will decide the issue doesn't make sense,” she said.
The ballot measure is seen as an alternative to AB5. According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, the measure would create a new third category between independent contractor and employee.
Wells indicated the right for a person to choose to work as an independent contractor if they want should be upheld.
"Most drivers do this part-time,” she said. "They are really doing this as an extra [source of] income."
Critics of the injunction say its implementation, in addition to jeopardizing 900,000 jobs, ride-hailing and delivery services for customers across the state, would also hit a California economy already reeling toward recession because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics also contend by a clear 4-to-1 majority of those questioned that they favored the flexibility that comes from being an independent contractor.
Wells said it remains unclear if Uber or Lyft would appeal an August decision granting the injunction in San Francisco Superior Court.