California just passed a landmark law to regulate Uber and Lyft

[ariesgem]

Source: Vox.com

California just disrupted the gig economy.

Senate lawmakers passed a controversial bill, known as AB 5, on Tuesday evening, after months of uproar from businesses and gig companies like Uber and Lyft. The bill will require businesses to hire workers as employees, not independent contractors, with some exceptions. That will give hundreds of thousands of California workers basic labor rights for the first time.

And despite an aggressive lobbying campaign, Uber and Lyft are not exempt.

Senators voted 29-11 in favor of AB 5, and on Wednesday the state assembly approved their amendments to the bill. Now it heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature. He has signaled that he will sign it.

“This is a victory to savor,” tweetedNicole Moore, an Uber driver and organizer with Rideshare Drivers United.



Read more: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=newssearch&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiinoLC18nkAhVRsp4KHSEqCCUQzPwBegQIARAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vox.com%2F2019%2F9%2F11%2F20850878%2Fcalifornia-passes-ab5-bill-uber-lyft&psig=AOvVaw31bNK3DaBuiGjc89JiPAVF&ust=1568322711196951

[AllaN01Bear]

1. in the city and county where i live , cab companies have to register with the police dept.

id like to see uber and lyft meet the same requirements as cab cos do as i view uber and lyft a unlicensed cab co. cab cos in this county also treat their drivers as independant contractors .

[groundloop]

6. Precisely what I've said for years - unlicensed cab companies.

The people who drive aren't insured for carrying paying passengers, good luck to a passenger who's injured in a wreck.

Yes, they need to be regulated.

[unblock]

2. the jig is up for the gig economy

[Coventina]

3. You beat me to it!

[Igel]

7. The gig economy is

both

(a) older and

(b) smaller

than most think.

It's promise is that when circumstances change, it shifts quickly. Jobs vanish. Conditions change. It's like trying to mould a pile of sand or even water. The assumption is that everything will stay the same, but an already money-losing company will alter its business model precisely in a way to keep everything *else* the same.

That seldom happens.

We get that when it's a regulation or something that affects us. It's only common sense.

We tend to react unreasonably when it's a regulation or something that affects others, and they react exactly as we'd react. It diminishes our power.

The current way that health care is provided, how CEO salaries have skyrocketed (the actual manner, and the fact that they're able to do so so well) are all results of attempts to control others only to find that those others don't like being minions and do things to preserve their interests as they see them.

Except in the case of Lyft and Uber, it just may hasten their demise--or, as many politically influential people probably hope their control of matters political will achieve, bringing Lyft and Uber in line with former economic interests. Leashes are good, as long as they're not on us.

[AtheistCrusader]

8. Don't celebrate too much. This has consequences.

As Uber/Lyft costs rise, people who went to NO car families in the inner cities, are going to find themselves squeezed for transportation, particularly in cities without adequate mass transit.

I suppose car-share programs like ZipCar will take up some slack, but still... cost of living will rise.

[meadowlander]

13. But I think the point is basic workers' rights shouldn't be thrown under the bus

to subsidise lack of investment in public transport options.

[unblock]

4. the government cracked down on contract computer programmers back in the 1980s

when i first started, i worked as my own business, though in practice i had to show up at the client site essentially during the hours they wanted me there, etc., so in many ways i looked like an employee, just not a "permanent" one. and of course they only paid me my hourly rate, zero benefits, no social security, etc.

at some point in the late '80s that changed and i had to be employed by the agency that found me my work. in practice little changed. they paid social security, but my hourly rate was reduced correspondingly. they had very few other benefits.


if they could do that for computer programmers decades ago, they can surely do that for drivers.

[FakeNoose]

5. I hope those drivers unionize

Unions aren't the answer to everything, but they could certainly fix a lot in this case.

[BigmanPigman]

9. I was thinking the same thing when I read it.

[LisaM]

10. I'm glad to hear this. Among other things, "rideshares" create traffic nightmares

at airports, and in the city. It's a mess in Seattle. They had a PAX Con here a couple of weeks ago, and the people all came in Uber and Lyft vehicles, and the backup was enormous, there was a huge line of Priuses creating a logjam off I5 (apparently PAX Con attendees don't stay in downtown hotels either, but that's a different story).


https://www.sfgate.com/travel/resources/transit/article/Uber-Lyft-impact-SF-traffic-doubled-ride-hailing-14282551.php

I put rideshare in quotes, because that's a euphemism. It implies, for example, someone was going to the airport anyway, and just took a couple more passengers on the trip. They are really unlicensed taxi services.

I don't like the surge pricing, either.

[BamaRefugee]

11. This is gonna screw over LOTS of people LIKE ME, and no, I'm NOT an UBER driver...

Huge chance that the way I, and others, in California, have made our living just fine, without any "help" from government, big corporations, OR labor unions, will shrivel up and die...there's NO WAY independent contractors like me, whether it's in the arts, the legal system, or lots of other fields, are going to be able to make a living as "employees".
How am I going to be employed by ALL OF MY CLIENTS, and for what hours and what salary? I have a career where I may do work for 5 different clients in a 2 hour span, make a good amount of money, then have nothing to do for an hour or more, or a day! And what hours am I supposed to work? In my work I may have a day when I start at 7am and get home at 10pm, then another day when I start at 1 and I'm home by 5, it all depends on the work load. And I start from home and end the day arriving at home, so when do I clock in and out? What if I had no work one day from one client, how are they paying me as an employee to do nothing for them?
If you have creative projects going on also, and you're "employed" by someone, how do you go out on the road with your band for 6 weeks? You don't, that part of you just has to die I guess, the perfect solution in a Trumpian world. As an independent contractor I can go off to pursue other things, as long as I still take care of my clients with able substitutes. And I go when *I* need to go, not when some HR person finally says it's OK (which they won't, who gets 6 weeks off from a job?).
The only thing I can rely on is that in California, the King of the Gig Economy, people will figure out workarounds fast, or, just as a for instance, there's not gonna be many new TV shows or movies being made...you think all of those show crews are employees? Hardly.

[GReedDiamond]

12. This times a million...

...I am an independent contractor/self employed/independent music/visual artist with a tax accountant who makes it all work for me.

I don't do Uber/Lyft, but that's not the point.

Thanks for your post, BamaRefugee

[meadowlander]

14. Presumably they could write in an exemption for project-based contracts.

Alternately, you get hired by a temp agency and they handle all the benefits/HR stuff.

[DeminPennswoods]

15. This law is targeting companies where the strategy

is to put all the traditional business labor costs on the employee/independent contractor so that the business gets a cut of the money offset by a very small cost to itself. The "independent contractor" is not even "independent" since the company sets out the rules and requirements the "contractor" must follow in order to have "a job". It's an ingenious scheme when you think about it.

It's not just uber/lyft either. It's fedex, amazon, truckers, even your local newspaper deliverer, who are similarly hired as "independent contractors".

This is far different from being self-employed or in business for yourself.