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.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    3 months ago

    It’s just not feasible to pay somebody an hourly wage when you can’t guarantee any work to be available for them to do at any given time.

    This is precisely why the concept of a grocery store, convenience store, clothing store, post office, tech support line, airline, pizzeria, or literally any other business is impossible to get off the ground.

    Gosh, I wish our society had commerce merchants but it’s just infeasible to provide any service that isn’t constantly guaranteed to be in use… even mail order services are a pope dream!

    Your point, if you didn’t catch on in the first two paragraphs, is so utterly and insanely wrong.