SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers on Friday introduced a take care of Uber and Lyft on a invoice that may enable a whole lot of 1000’s of rideshare drivers to type unions and discount collectively whereas nonetheless being labeled as unbiased contractors.
Newsom, Meeting Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate Professional Tem Mike McGuire mentioned they have been backing a compromise that may advance the collective bargaining invoice out of the Legislature together with a invoice sponsored by Uber and Lyft that may considerably scale back the businesses’ insurance coverage necessities.
The businesses have argued that present insurance coverage necessities are so excessive that they encourage litigation for insurance coverage payouts and create larger prices for passengers.
“Labor and trade sat down collectively, labored by way of their variations, and located frequent floor,” Newsom mentioned in a press release. The settlement, he mentioned, will “empower a whole lot of 1000’s of drivers whereas making rideshare extra reasonably priced for tens of millions of Californians.”
The deal marks a significant growth within the years-long tussle between organized labor and Silicon Valley corporations over how California approaches employees rights for unbiased contractors.
The 2 payments “symbolize a compromise that lowers prices for riders whereas creating stronger voices for drivers,” mentioned Ramona Prieto, Uber’s head of public coverage for California, in a ready assertion.
After the California Legislature rewrote employment legislation in 2019, clarifying and limiting when companies can classify their employees as unbiased contractors, Uber and Lyft went to California voters to exempt their drivers from that legislation. Their poll measure, often known as Proposition 22, handed by practically 6 in 10 voters in 2020.
Lawmakers tried once more this yr when Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) launched the collective bargaining invoice, sponsored by the highly effective Service Workers Worldwide Union California.
The invoice, which Uber and Lyft initially opposed, would enable drivers to barter their pay and different phrases of their agreements with their corporations, and would exempt the employees from the state and federal antitrust legal guidelines that may usually prohibit collective motion by unbiased contractors.
The insurance coverage invoice, backed by Uber and Lyft and launched by state Senator Christopher Cabaldon (D-Yolo), would cut back the quantity of insurance coverage that corporations like Uber and Lyft are required to offer for rides.
Presently, the businesses should carry $1 million in protection per rideshare driver for accidents attributable to different drivers who’re uninsured or underinsured. The settlement as an alternative requires $60,000 in uninsured motorist protection per rideshare driver and $300,000 per accident.
Cabaldon mentioned that the modifications would eradicate “outsized insurance coverage necessities that don’t apply to every other types of transportation, equivalent to taxis, buses, or limos.”
