Uber may close new week ride recovery in California, but Uber Eats will continue to operate.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Rides from Uber Technologies Inc. may end up in California next week, but Uber Eats – and the many drivers who have switched on delivery to get the service under orders for receptions – will continue.
Uber UBER,
says the ride-ending will close Aug. 21 if a verdict handed down Monday by a San Francisco Superior Court judge stands. Thursday, Uber and Lyft Inc. lost. LYFT her higher appeal to extend the 10-day stay on the conviction and said they will appeal to a higher court.
The lawsuit, brought by California, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego against Uber and Lyft, would force companies to classify their drivers as employees instead of independent contractors to comply with a new California law. But the lawsuit only applies to drivers with driving, not suppliers.
Uber’s Eats company has seen an increase in demand during the coronavirus pandemic, while the demand for ride tank has increased along with travel and personal conferences and business meetings. For the first time in the second quarter, Eats generated more revenue ($ 1.21 billion) than driving ($ 790 million).
See: Uber’s delivery company tops core ride hail as pandemic rock revenue
If California remains below a statewide shelter-in-place order, asking for a rebound in ride demand that Uber and Lyft see in other states, is it slow to get into the state, the companies said recently during their call for revenue . As a result, many drivers have switched to deliveries at a time when some people are unable or unable to pick up their own food or groceries.
“Driving is dry and driving is safer with food boxes than passengers,” said Nicole Moore, a Los Angeles-based driver organizer for Rideshare Drivers United.
Mostafa Maklad, who has been driving for Uber in San Francisco for almost six years and is an organizer with Gig Workers Rising, recently turned to delivery. He delivers in any case for Uber Eats, while the company fights a law meant to guarantee rights and benefits for drivers like him.
“Just like any employer when they see workers organizing for their rights and what they deserve, (Uber) threatens to burn everyone,” Maklad said. “They have always said they care about their drivers and the workers, but their policies and practices have proven the opposite, and we can see that clearly in the voting initiative.”
Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates will place millions of dollars in Proposition 22, of which California residents will vote in November. The initiative seeks to free gig companies – whose companies depend on workers they want to keep from being classified as employees – from Assembly Bill 5, which became law in California this year after a blow fight that began in 2018, when the Supreme Court in California ruled in the Dynamex case to adopt a simpler standard for when a worker can be considered an independent contractor.
Prop. 22 offers concessions, such as an equivalent to a minimum wage, to drivers without giving them full protection of workers. And Uber renewed its call this week for a portable benefit plan that would require all gig companies to pay to help workers with health insurance as well as time-off costs.
“I do not believe an independent contractor is perfect,” Uber CEO Dara Khowsrowshahi tweeted Friday. “The status quo is not working. Therefore, we have made detailed proposals to give more benefits to drivers while maintaining the independent model that they prefer. “
While it appears that Uber Eats will not be affected in the first place, even if California has won a round in the race-healing classification battle, the employment status of suppliers is being worked on to the next big mess.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin filed DoorDash in June over classification of its suppliers, and this week he asked for an order to force the company to pursue AB 5, pending the October lawsuit. San Diego won a lawsuit against Instacart earlier this year over the same issue, but the company is on appeal.
As for the fact that the lawsuit in the California case against Uber and Lyft only applies to drivers with ride-healing, says Veena Dubal, a UC Hastings law professor who studies the effects of technology on workers and organizes among gig workers , says that although she believes that delivery workers are also misclassified, the “facts of the statement are different.”
“It would be difficult to litigate both sets of facts at the same time,” Dubal added. “I suspect, however, that California’s attorney general will work in the coming months to enforce the law against the business models for food delivery.”
When Thursday was reached for comment, a spokesman for the State AG office said, “We are pleased with the court’s decision confirming Monday’s order, and we will continue to do our part. to protect the rights of workers in California. “
.
