NELP and other workers’ rights advocates urge court to stop Uber and Lyft’s independent contractor misclassification.

On July 17, 2020, NELP, in collaboration with Legal Aid at Work and other California-based workers’ rights organizations, urged the San Francisco Superior Court of California to stop Uber and Lyft’s illegal misclassification of their drivers as independent contractors.

Though they proudly wear the label of innovative “technology” companies, Uber and Lyft are no different than any other company that routinely violates labor and employment laws to boost its profits at the expense of its workers.

By misclassifying their hundreds of thousands of drivers as independent contractors, Uber and Lyft dispossess their workers of basic labor protections, such as minimum wage, overtime pay, workers’ compensation, unemployment and state disability insurance, and other critical rights intended to cover most workers in our society.

Calling a driver an “independent contractor” does not make it so, and managing employees through an online application does not transform them into self-employed entrepreneurs. Drivers for Uber and Lyft are not running their own separate businesses; they are integral to the companies’ businesses. They are Uber and Lyft’s employees.

Misclassification is not unique to app-based employers—it occurs in every industry where a company might feel the itch to cut corners and boost profits. But in Silicon Valley, the practice has its peculiarities. Companies like Uber and Lyft have flourished in a venture capital fever dream in which regulations are disrupted and the dignity of human labor processed via algorithm and code. Through their gospel of “flexible work,” Uber and Lyft have taken an illegal practice familiar to bad employers everywhere and turned it into the “future of work.”

As described in the amici brief, by subverting labor laws and disabling industry regulations, the two companies have been able to steal wages, duck accountability, offload risk, sabotage worker power, and worsen income and wealth inequality.

Driving for Uber and Lyft must be seen for what it really is: Employment for a company that unilaterally dictates the material terms of work for people who are not running their own business.

NELP urges the San Francisco Superior Court of California to correctly enforce state law, so that drivers for Uber and Lyft, already providing the core transportation service for the companies, may access their employee rights under California law.

This blog originally appeared at NELP on July 20, 2020. Reprinted with permission.

About the Author: Brian Chen is a Staff Attorney at the National Employment Law Project. He primarily focuses on building power for workers who are exploited in “nontraditional” work structures, such as independent contractors, temp, and gig workers. Through litigation and policy campaigns, he aims to support workers’ efforts to democratically self-determine their material conditions.