ANGELO MERENDINO/AFP/Getty Images
The fight over how to classify workers in the “gig-economy” is a live one in California. I hate even using the term “gig-economy,” because it feels like it was invented by tech-bros to justify not paying people. People have jobs. Whether you get assigned your daily tasks from a “manager” or an “app” somehow turns your job into a “gig,” and if it’s a gig then your employer doesn’t have to pay you a state-mandated minimum wage? Man, f**k that.
California is at the forefront of redefining “independent contractors” as “employees” so that giant companies can’t take advantage of them. Last year, a major case came down from the California Supreme Court: Dynamex v. Superior Court. The key to the Dynamex decision is that it changed the presumption: now, California presumptively views employees as, well, “employees,” and places the burden on employers to show that their people are “contractors” and not employees.
There’s nothing the gig employers can do about that. But now there’s a bill floating around the California legislature that seeks to further define “employee” in a way to include gig employees, and thus bring them under the protection of California’s labor laws. The gig employers have vowed to fight that legislation with a ballot referendum. From Courthouse News:
Gig economy giants on Thursday threatened to pour $90 million into a ballot measure to defeat a piece of California legislation that would classify their workers as employees entitled to minimum wage and overtime, rather than as independent contractors.
Uber, Lyft and Doordash pledged $30 million each to support a 2020 ballot measure that would overturn the proposed law. The companies say their business models rely on gig workers to provide rides, food deliveries and other app-based services to consumers.
Spending $90 million to fight labor protections laws instead of spending that money paying your workers is sooooo late stage capitalism.
However, as former British Prime Minister David Cameron learned, putting forth a cynical ballot measure can backfire:
A spokesman for the California Labor Federation, which supports [legislation], called the proposed ballot measure “a cynical approach” that he believes will backfire on the gig-economy giants.
“They’re failing to comply with the law currently by denying basic protection to their workers,” California Labor Federation spokesman Steve Smith said by phone. “They’re trying to get out of these obligations by spending massive gobs of money on a ballot measure. We don’t’ think that’s going to fly in California.”
I know how capitalism works. They’ll just pass the costs onto me. And I’m fine with that. I’m black and I enjoy being able to pay for my ride as opposed to being passed in the street like my money isn’t good enough so the cabbie can pick up some white person downstream of me. But those drivers should be paid and receive benefits as employees.
Gig-Economy Giants Will Back $90M Ballot Measure to Stop California Labor Bill [Courthouse News Service]
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.