For too long Lyft and Uber have abused drivers like me. Not any more!
Have you ever taken a ride using the Lyft app? There’s a chance I drove you.
I’ve worked in the gig economy for over four years, mostly as a Lyft driver. I started driving to make money during my hour-long commute to work. When I lost my full time job, Lyft became my primary source of income.
Let’s follow California’s lead and regulate companies like Uber
This week, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom – a darling of tech capitalists – signed Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) into law. The bill codifies the “ABC test” to determine the applicability of California employment laws and makes it harder for companies to get away with misclassifying workers as independent contractors. If properly enforced, AB5 will have enormous impacts for vulnerable workers in the trucking, janitorial and construction industries.
The future of work: share out the benefits
California is one of the few economies large enough to set the rules in a globalised world. The state’s initiatives on car safety and emissions have in the past set an example that was followed by car manufacturers everywhere. In a less beneficial way, California was also the birthplace of the gig economy, and the widespread use of webs of casual labour tied together by algorithms to subvert labour laws and other regulations in all sorts of fields, ranging from taxi firms to B&Bs. So it’s an important development that the state’s senate has now turned decisively against the exploitation of casual workers. This week it passed a law that would reclassify many of the so-called independent contractors who work in the gig economy as employees, entitled to a minimum wage, paid parental leave and unemployment insurance.
Dancers, writers, caddies: the gig workers who could benefit from California’s historic bill
Groundbreaking legislation passed by California lawmakers on Wednesday has been lauded for its potential to transform the way tech companies such as Uber and Lyft treat their drivers – but those aren’t the only workers who stand to benefit.
The bill, known as AB5, will go into effect in January 2020. It sets a three-part standard for determining whether workers are properly classified as independent contractors, requiring that (a) they are free from the company’s control, (b) they are doing work that isn’t central to the company’s business and (c) they have an independent business in that industry.
California passes landmark gig economy workers’ rights bill
Lawmakers in California have passed a landmark bill that would make it much more difficult for companies such as Uber and Lyft to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees.
The bill, which paves the way for workers in the so-called gig economy to get holiday and sick pay, has garnered attention across the US and beyond, largely owing to the size of California’s workforce.
How gig economy workers are using tech to fight back
Fatima, from Guinea-Bissau, wakes up in the early hours of the morning to be in with a chance of being able to use the bathroom at her small house in Stratford, east London, which she shares with nine strangers – some are Italian, she thinks, and some might be eastern European, but nobody socialises as they are all too busy working, so she can’t really be sure.
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