Defending Proposition 22 in the State Supreme Court: How App-based Companies Have Destroyed Our Social Contract, And What We Can Do About It

The company issued responses to the court’s decision. “From the moment it became law, Prop 22 has been working for the millions of drivers and couriers that earn on platforms like ours,” Uber writes in a post on its website. Over a billion dollars in direct benefits have been delivered by single company, such asUber.

Opponents of Prop 22 are frustrated with the outcome. “We are deeply disappointed that the state Supreme Court has allowed tech corporations to buy their way out of basic labor laws despite Proposition 22’s inconsistencies with our state constitution,” Lorena Gonzalez, the president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, says in a statement posted online. “These companies have upended our social contract, forcing workers and the public to take on the inherent risk created by this work, while they profit.”

The 2020 ballot measure required the app-based companies to institute a wage floor, at least for the time drivers spend with passengers in the car, and to pay out health care stipends for workers who drive enough monthly hours.

“Today’s decision was supposed to bring justice, to confirm that even as workers who are managed by apps on our phone, by algorithms, by AI, that we are indeed workers with robot managers,” Nicole Moore, president of Rideshare Drivers United and a part-time driver in Los Angeles, said during a briefing with reporters following the decision. We are employees of the state and we should have the same benefits as other workers. That didn’t happen today. Moore said that the state’s lawmakers should find a way to ensure that drivers are protected and paid fairly.

Some drivers were happy to see that app-based companies maintained their flexibility on the call. “I’m just so grateful right now,” said driver Stephanie Whitfield, who works in the Coachella Valley.

It will not have a direct effect on the laws of other states, but may have an impact in other places. Minnesota and Colorado both recently passed laws that set pay guidelines for app-based drivers, but did not resolve the question of whether workers should be treated as employees or contractors. The Biden administration has taken aim at worker misclassification in the gig economy through new labor rules, though app-based companies say those rules don’t affect their businesses.