The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that app-based ride-hailing and delivery services like Uber and Lyft can continue treating their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees.

The unanimous decision by the state’s top court is a big win for tech giants. It also ends a yearslong legal battle between labor unions and tech companies over a law dictating the status of app-based service workers in the state.

The ruling upholds a voter-approved law passed in 2020 that said drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft are independent contractors and are not entitled to benefits like overtime pay, paid sick leave and unemployment insurance. Opponents said the law was illegal in part because it limited the state Legislature’s authority to change the law or pass laws about workers’ compensation programs.

  • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    What you are saying is “It’s okay to keep exploiting them because we need the service they provide, and cheap.” Fuck you.

    These companies haven’t turned a profit.

    You realize that’s on purpose, right? It’s accounting magic to pay less taxes and to feed people like you propaganda to parrot. There definitely is enough money to pay the executives fat bonuses. (But those are “expenses”.)

    Everyone deserves fair pay, job stability, HEALTHCARE and other benefits. If YOU can’t afford the LUXURY of an Uber unless the guy who drives you is being fleeced because otherwise he can’t feed his family, the solution is not to exploit the workers. It is to not take an Uber.

    • Chozo@fedia.io
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      3 months ago

      What you are saying is “It’s okay to keep exploiting them because we need the service they provide, and cheap.” Fuck you.

      That’s absolutely not what I’m saying, and fuck you for insinuating it. I’m saying it’s more complicated than some eye-grabbing heading will have you think, especially when you’re not taking the actual workers’ motives into consideration.

      Everyone deserves fair pay, job stability, HEALTHCARE and other benefits. If YOU can’t afford the LUXURY of an Uber unless the guy who drives you is being fleeced because otherwise he can’t feed his family, the solution is not to exploit the workers. It is to not take an Uber.

      I agree completely. But some people need an Uber. Ride sharing has offered a lot of people some amount of independence they might not otherwise have, given the state of transit options in their area. In fact, I’d argue that most Uber users do so out of need instead of desire, given how outrageous the prices are.

      • odium@programming.dev
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        3 months ago

        In my opinion, your “some uber drivers prefer contracting” argument has merit. But your customer arguments don’t. Taxis have existed and did the same things uber does from the perspective of the customer for decades. Ubers are now often more expensive than the taxi. There wouldn’t be a change from the customer’s side.

      • Randomgal@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        That’s absolutely not what I’m saying…

        Okay bro it’s not like the text is right there. Lol