Transport platform Lyft has opened an online store to sell masks and other protective gear as the Covid-19 pandemic escalates, enraging drivers and labor organizers who say the company should provide them for free.
The tech company’s move to sell protective gear for drivers instead of providing it There is a resurgence of debate over whether drivers are employees or independent contractors, and to what extent tech giants have responsibility for workers’ working conditions.
California passed a law requiring Uber and Lyft to reclassify their drivers as employees and provide benefits and protections accordingly in 2019. But concert companies like Lyft and Uber have resisted the change, modifying their apps in an attempt to avoid the scope of the law. . California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is seeking a court order to compel companies to comply.
The Lyft store launched on June 1, a company spokeswoman told The Guardian, and sells the supplies “at cost,” he said.
“Lyft is not making a profit on PPE,” he said, adding that Lyft had distributed more than 150,000 disinfectant products and masks to drivers since the Covid-19 crisis began. “The Lyft Store is a resource for providing millions of drivers across the United States with easy access to cleaning products and face masks that have always been difficult to find.”
Still, drivers complain that they have taken on much of the safety and cost responsibilities. Eden Alva, a driver organizer in the Bay Area, said Lyft should not charge drivers for the personal protective equipment required to work safely, but should provide it free of charge. Alva stopped driving for Lyft in April out of fear of Covid-19 and saw his salary drop as more people stayed home due to the virus. He has been without constant work since then.
“From the beginning, they have brought all the costs, expenses and risks to the drivers and pocketed as much revenue as possible,” he said. “During a crisis like the coronavirus, drivers suffer even more, and there is no form of safety net.”
Alva said he struggled to find masks and disinfectants at the start of the pandemic, sometimes turning to alcohol or bleach when cleaning solutions were scarce. She noted that her salary was dropping to less than $ 5 an hour when the national shutdown halted the ride and finally resigned in April.
“I can’t believe Lyft is trying to sell drivers a way to stay safe when in fact they should not only provide hand sanitizer and masks, but also put plexiglass screens to protect passengers and drivers,” said Veena Dubal. , associated. Professor of Labor Law at UC Hastings School of Law. “It is irritating”.
Following the release, Lyft announced that it would begin providing partitions to maintain the distance between drivers and passengers.
As Lyft’s home state of California faces a Covid-19 resurgence, driver concerns are expected to intensify as more people stay home and drivers earn less business, especially as the stipend $ 600 per week pandemic unemployment rate provided by the US government Expiring.
Meanwhile, Proposition 22, a bill to deny the law requiring Uber and Lyft to reclassify drivers, is looming. The ballot measure received $ 110 million from Uber, Lyft, Postmates, Instacart and DoorDash. It would roll back the law passed in 2019 that classifies workers as employees, consolidating their place as independent contractors and stripping them of benefits.
“As all the benefits run out, people will find themselves in a terrifying situation where they will be forced to make the decision to risk their lives to put food on the table,” Dubal said.
The PPE problem and Lyft’s current resistance to measures like AB5 underscore the public health issues surrounding the collaborative economy and the way it manages its workers, Dubal said. A survey conducted in April found that 67% of carpool drivers were unable to pay rent in May due to the effects of the pandemic on their earnings, and 68% had not received gloves, disinfectants, or masks from Lyft or Uber. .
For Alva, the creation of the store underscored the company’s inability to provide basic safety supplies to its workers, even when it made billions of dollars when it went public in 2019 and its executives earned millions of dollars in salary.
“His investors and executives make billions, and he hoped that in times of need they would use their resources to protect the workers who made all this money for them,” he said. “But instead, these wealthy corporations are allowing themselves to completely abuse their workers and put their workforce at increasing risk without providing basic protections.”
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