Rideshare driver employee or independent contractors?

[ILLMAS]

Seems the state of CA is cracking down on companies:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-uber-lyft-driver-employees-20200811-kgqv2yiirvdbdh7tk3qqrmeoey-story.html

[BulldogTom]

5 hours ago, ILLMAS said:

Seems the state of CA is cracking down on companies:

Yup.   A judge has ruled that Uber & Lyft must immediately classify their drivers as employees.   No stay of the order until they appeal.   

Proposition 22 on the November ballot would undue AB5 if passed and allow people to go into an independent contractor relationship with a company if they choose to do so.   Authored by Uber and Lyft.   The politics are getting ugly on it.   I won't go into it, but if you look at the original title of the proposition, and the one the state just replaced it with, you will see what is going on.  CA wants everyone to be an employee.

Tom
Modesto, CA

[Lloyd Hudson]

I realize that this is the State of the  Big NO. But, under current definitions the Uber/Lyft ride share folks could not be employees. 

They determine their hours, they provide their tools (cell phone and car) , and most of them have other jobs or businesses that are different from the part-time ride share business. 

[BulldogTom]

12 hours ago, Lloyd Hudson said:

They determine their hours,

Agree with most of what you say, except the hours.   The driver can turn off the app any time they want.   And that is the big difference.  

Tom
Modesto, CA

[Lloyd Hudson]

That is what I thought i was saying, the operator (contractor) determines his/her hours. Not the corp. structure. 

[BulldogTom]

10 hours ago, Lloyd Hudson said:

That is what I thought i was saying, the operator (contractor) determines his/her hours. Not the corp. structure. 

What I read must not have been what I thought you meant because I went back and read it again and now I think I know that I did not know what I thought you meant when I read it before. (lol)

Anyway, CA thinks they are employees, even if they can prove in federal tax court that they are IC.   CA law AB5 says they are employees, regardless of the facts and circumstances.

Tom
Modesto, CA

 

[Lee B]

There are many, many different factors that go into determining whether someone is an employee or an independent contractor, as last count I read that 39 separate factors have been identified. The socalled gig employees fall somewhere in the middle. IMHO they are closer to being employees than they are to be independent contractors. And Tom you are totally right the state decides. In Oregon residential contractors for years tried this structure; a general contractor with zero employees,  all the work being done by various subcontractors who also had

zero employees. Until state law made it mandatory that someone on the job site had to have a workers compensation policy that covered everyone working on the job site, including the

independent contractors.