Uber, Lyft and other companies for gig economy dismiss workers

The coronavirus pandemic has delivered a punch of one to two to American workers – a public health emergency coupled with a brutal economic crisis. Our country has lost millions of jobs and has already experienced some of the highest unemployment rates since the Great Depression. Essential workers risk their safety on the job, often without adequate protection. First Republicans have protected employers from liability while dismantling federal labor protections, their top priority for the next loss package. We need to respond to this crisis by placing power in the hands of workers – and an important part of this is ending workers’ declarations.

Companies with Gig economies such as Uber, Lyft, GrubHub, and Amazon classify workers as ‘independent contractors’ instead of employees, allowing them to refuse workers collective bargaining rights, health care, a minimum wage, cover protection and access to unemployment insurance and paid health insurance. guaranteed to employees under state and federal law.

This model cuts workers who rely on these jobs to support themselves and their families. Competitors trying to follow the rules also cannot participate in the artificially low costs enjoyed by companies that withhold labor protection waived by workers. State and local governments also suffer because these companies do not pay state unemployment as workers ’compensation funds or pay taxes to employers for declared workers.

Abuse workers as self-employed workers can be a popular tool for employers looking to strip workers of basic rights and protections to pave their own pockets. And if we do not act, this anti-labor practice will be deeply ingrained in our economy.

Currently, Uber is leading the charge to seek a new legal classification for employees of gig economics who are enrolling in a way for companies to evade their responsibilities to workers. Together with other companies for gig economy, it tries to convince the public and policymakers that everyone will benefit if it is allowed to fight the rules that apply to all other employers. And a former lawyer of the company that defends it, her former lawyer, who now heads the Department of Labor, is quick to issue a rule to make it easier for companies to dismiss workers.

Instead of helping gigantic companies evade the law, we need to follow the lead of states that have taken steps to protect workers. In Massachusetts and California, there are extensive laws in place and a rigorous test to stop companies from declaring their workers. Known as an “ABC test” for the three conditions that must be met for a worker to be classified as an independent contractor, it is a clear, direct way to ensure that workers are not denied rights and protections so that companies can maximize their profits. Attorneys General Xavier Becerra and Maura Healy recently condemned Uber and Lyft during this test for continuing to declare workers in violation of California and Massachusetts law, and a California judge has ruled that drivers should be classified as employees under the test. We need to apply that test to federal laws such as the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act so that it protects every worker.

Ending workers’ declarations is only one part of what Congress needs to do to protect workers. The weak labor market gives employers the power to keep wages flat or cut as a condition of retraining, or to replace full-time, union-represented jobs with part-time or contractor positions that have no benefits, stability or protections. Early data suggest that people who were out of work during the economic pandemic of the pandemic will return to jobs that offer fewer hours and less pay. Communities of color and low-income workers are hardest hit by the economic impact of Covid-19, and are most at risk for further harm if we do not trade.

After more than a decade without increases, it is long overdue for Congress to raise the federal minimum wage – and further increases will automatically tie in with inflation. Millions of workers earned wages so low before the virus struck that they saw an increase in unemployment benefits after losing their jobs. That does not mean that benefits are too generous: it does mean that wages are too low. Employers also need strong health and safety guarantees. Congress should include an Essential Workers Bill of Rights in the next coronavirus relief package to ensure benefits and protections for essential workers, who are left unprotected and underpaid by large employers.

The unemployment cover provided in the CARES Act has been a lifeline for families and for our economy. The full $ 600 supplement to weekly benefits should be extended immediately, and those benefits, such as the additional extensions of unemployment benefits such as Pandemic Unemployment Benefit, should be tied to real-time economic data, not a random cut-off date. While this administration has worked to dismantle the rights of workers for union and collective bargaining at every turn, it is also time for Congress to weigh in by protecting and strengthening the rights of workers.

Our country is facing an unusual health and economic crisis, and our failure to protect workers has added fuel to the fire. If workers had more power at the beginning of this crisis, companies might have implemented protections that slowed the spread of the virus. If workers had fair wages, families might have more pillows to withstand a recession. We can not change how this crisis began, but we can still change how we get out of it.

Elizabeth Warren is the senior senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education and Labor. Shannon Liss-Riordan is a Massachusetts labor lawyer and former U.S. Senate candidate who once prosecuted Uber in a class-action lawsuit.