Thread by @josheidelson

Recently Uber has used its app to tell drivers that "Recent changes to California law could threaten your access to flexible work with Uber," & ask them to sign a petition to get the state legislature "to modernize the law".

Here's some context on what's afoot & what's at stake.

In 2018, CA's supreme court issued a sweeping ruling establishing that if workers aren't conducting “work that it outside the usual course” of a firm’s business, then under CA wage law they're employees entitled to protections - not independent contractors bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

This ruling spurred alarm among all sorts of companies, including tech platform companies whose core business model is providing services via an army of workers who they claim are contractors, but whose work is arguably very much within "the usual course" of the firm's business.

Last summer we reported that gig companies including Uber, Lyft, Instacart & Doordash were quietly lobbying California's top Democrats for legislation or executive action to shield them from the ruling, which they said would otherwise “decimate businesses” bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Federal or state laws guarantee a slew of protections to employees but not to independent contractors, including minimum wage, overtime, breaks, sexual harassment protection, unemployment, worker's compensation, non-discrimination & union organizing rights bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Having employees brings costs & liabilities for companies that don't apply w/ contractors. Uber has said making drivers employees “would require us to fundamentally change our business model" & have "adverse effect on our business and financial condition.” bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Under state and federal laws, whether workers are contractors or employees depends on a range of often-contested factors including how much control a boss exerts over the work. Someone may be an employee under one law, but not under another bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

In January, we reported firms like Uber & Lyft were meeting with unions like Teamsters & SEIU to discuss potential compromises under which gig companies could keep classifying workers as contractors but would provide new perks like benefits funds or guilds bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Uber had already forged a deal in 2016 to create a Uber-funded, union-affiliated guild for NY drivers that's prohibited from striking or challenging designation of drivers as contractors, but can contest deactivations and lobby for changes like wage floor bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

New York City now guarantees rideshare drivers a minimum wage meant to be over $17 an hour after expenses bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

In May, California’s state assembly passed A.B. 5, legislation that, if approved by the state senate and Governor Newsom, would codify the 2018 Dynamex ruling’s broad definition of an employee and apply it, with exceptions, to a wide swathe of state laws bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

CA Gov. Gavin Newsom–who along with power to sign or veto legislation like A.B. 5 also has discretion over how CA enforcers pursue wage law cases–has been publicly and privately advocating for some sort of compromise on Dynamex between tech and labor bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

In a 6/12 joint op-ed, Uber & Lyft went public w/ their vision for deal: Drivers would be considered contractors, not employees, but would get wage standards for the time when they're picking up or dropping off passengers, a benefits fund, & an association bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

We've reported that similar proposals are also being discussed by gig companies like Postmates, whose public policy VP says they've found some in labor to be willing to "brainstorm" and “coalesce around what the contours of a better social contract can be” bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Asked about the talks with companies, a Teamsters leader says, “Every single worker in California deserves the right to organize, a living wage, benefits like health care and retirement, and a voice to set standards in their industry." bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Cali AFL-CIO says what Uber & Lyft propose falls “woefully short of the protections gig workers are entitled to under current law.” CA's building trades union council warns that deals w/ platform companies risk undermining labor standards across industries bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Uber and Lyft execs write, “we have an opportunity to work with legislators and labor groups to find a different solution that preserves drivers’ ability to work independently if they choose to do so while improving the quality and security of their work.” bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Something not all coverage makes clear: Making workers employees under CA law doesn't directly provide unionization rights, b/c that's a federal law issue. Conversely, letting companies tag them contractors under CA law doesn't directly stop feds from concluding they're employees

But any changes companies made to comply with state law could affect workers' status under federal law. And given CA's size & primacy for tech and labor, whatever happens there will reshape the national debate over the legal rights & status of gig workers. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Trump-appointed National Labor Relations Board general counsel has taken the position that Uber drivers aren't employees. In contrast, Dems including 6 senators running for president have sponsored legislation to apply a test like the one in CA Dynamex ruling to federal labor law

Bernie Sanders introduced a bill just days after last year's Dynamex ruling that would apply an equivalent standard to federal labor law, expanding the number of workers who are considered employees with collective action and unionization rights bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Meanwhile, last year 9th Circuit signaled antitrust law would likely doom a Seattle law (backed by labor, opposed by Uber) creating collective bargaining rights for rideshare staff– but that there's a path for a state to do something similar if it chose to bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Much more ahead on all this in the month ahead. Send me tips!

jeidelson at bloomberg dot net. Also reachable on Signal, DM, and so forth...