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Uber won a victory Monday in California, where an appeals court ruled that the “Proposition 22” law devoting paid work to the task, while granting drivers some social benefits, was in line with the local Constitution.
The law on the independent status of app drivers like Uber is not contrary to the California Constitution, an appeals court in this American state ruled on Monday March 13, a victory for the international company whose model economy depends on this status.
“Today’s decision is a victory for workers and the millions of Californians who voted for Proposition 22,” said Tony West, Uber’s chief legal officer, referring to the law passed in a referendum in 2020, which devoted paid work to the task, while granting drivers some social benefits.
Uber, its competitor Lyft and other platforms refuse to consider drivers as full employees, which would mean granting them certain rights, such as unemployment benefits or possible collective bargaining.
Drivers’ associations and unions campaigning for employee status had won a first battle in August 2021, when a judge declared Proposition 22 “unconstitutional”, because it limited “the power of the assembly” to legislate to the future on this subject. Asked by AFP, one of these associations, RDU (Rideshare Drivers United), did not immediately react to the decision.
Uber embodies the “gig economy”, or the gig economy, widely adopted, but also widely criticized, in many major cities around the world. The group defends its economic model step by step, but it has had to let go of ballast in certain countries. In the United Kingdom, in 2021 it had to grant salaried worker status to its British drivers, with minimum wage and paid leave, a world first for the company.
Resistance in the United States
But in the United States, the platform continues to resist. With its competitor Lyft and delivery services, it had spent in 2020 more than 200 million dollars to promote the “yes” to Proposition 22. And three months before the vote, the two Californian companies had threatened to completely interrupt their service in the state, which would have put tens of thousands of people out of work.
Voters had voted 58.6% in favor of the law proposed by the companies. “Drivers across the state have said they are happy with Proposition 22, which allows them to enjoy new benefits while maintaining job flexibility through apps,” Tony West said Monday.
The vehicle-with-driver (VTC) reservation and meal delivery platform recorded a net loss of $9.1 billion in 2022, despite a net profit of nearly $600 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. Its title took nearly 5% during electronic trading after the close of trading on Monday.
With AFP