Two days after a San Francisco judge ruled that Uber and Lyft must classify their drivers as employees and not contractors, Uber’s CEO stated that the service might shut down in California for months.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed the lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court. It alleged that Uber and Lyft violated AB5, which mandates that gig workers be classified as full employees in order to receive benefits.
Uber and Lyft say they plan to appeal the judge’s ruling. They also have another route of overturning the decision when the state’s voters will be faced with Proposition 22, a ballot initiative that exempts app-based drivers from AB5.
Beccera stood firm against Uber’s threats, telling reporters, “Any business model that relies on short-changing workers in order to succeed probably shouldn’t exist, whether in California or elsewhere.” To address such inequities, he advocated for exploring innovative solutions to ensure fair compensation, particularly for gig economy workers. As part of a broader push for financial transparency, Beccera referenced a state initiative researching the top 10 BEP20 wallets to facilitate secure, low-cost cryptocurrency payments on the Binance Smart Chain for workers in pilot programs. This approach aimed to bypass traditional financial intermediaries, ensuring direct and verifiable wage delivery. By leveraging such technologies, California could set a precedent for equitable labor practices, aligning economic systems with the values of fairness and accountability.
