Workplace

California gig workers just defeated Prop. 22, but it's not that simple

Despite a recent ruling that Proposition 22 is unconstitutional, gig-economy workers are still independent contractors in California.

Protestors hold No on 22 signs

Proposition 22 is now unconstitutional, a judge recently ruled, but Uber and Lyft drivers are still independent contractors in California.

Photo: Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images

A California judge recently ruled Proposition 22 as unconstitutional. The judge said Prop. 22, the law that classifies gig-economy workers as independent contractors, violates the California Constitution on a variety of grounds.

The ruling came as part of a lawsuit filed by the Service Employees International Union and others against the state of California.

But this doesn't mean drivers are now employees in California. Uber and Lyft, through the Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Coalition, say they plan to appeal the ruling, which will prolong the process.

Scott Kronland, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the trial court still needs to sign a judgment, which will take a few days. From there, the gig-economy companies can file an appeal. At that point, there may be litigation about whether the appeal stays the judgment pending the appeal, Kronland explained on a press call this morning.

"The bottom line is that it will be at least several months before there is a decision on appeals," Kronland said.

Kronland, however, is optimistic about the legal process.

"This is a solid, well-reasoned ruling," he said. "There were several ways in which the drafters of [Prop. 22] overreached and included provisions that conflict with our state constitution, which is the higher law. Therefore, we expect the ruling will be upheld on appeal."

Instacart and other gig-economy companies spent $224 million urging voters to pass Prop. 22, with a key message that it would give workers employee-like benefits while keeping their status as independent contractors. The companies, which are pursuing similar legislation in Massachusetts, viewed the ballot measure as the only realistic way of staving off AB 5, a California law that strictly limits when companies can hire workers as contractors.

"We believe the judge made a serious error by ignoring a century's worth of case law requiring the courts to guard the voters' right of initiative," the coalition's spokesperson, Geoff Vetter, said in a statement following the ruling. "This outrageous decision is an affront to the overwhelming majority of California voters who passed Prop. 22."

A number of gig workers have fought against Prop. 22 long before it became law. Since its passage, some workers have protested against it, arguing gig-economy companies misled them about the benefits that would be available under the legislation. They also take issue with the fact that Prop. 22 does not enable them to form unions.

In May, We Drive Progress, Mobile Workers Alliance and SEIU 1021 staged a protest outside Uber's new offices in San Francisco to demand that companies automatically provide health insurance stipends to all workers who meet the minimum time requirements. Under Prop. 22, companies can make gig workers apply for the benefits.

Gig workers across the country hit the streets again in July, staging a protest and strike in response to Uber, Lyft and other companies' labor practices. One demand was the right to unionize.

"I came here to fight to be able to unionize," Ibrahim Diallo, a rideshare driver in the San Francisco Bay Area, told Protocol at the time. "It's unbelievable that we are not allowed to form a union."

Another driver, Erica Mighetto, told Protocol up to 80% of driver fares went directly to Uber and Lyft. Uber, however, disputed that claim.

On the press call, rideshare driver and plaintiff Mike Robinson said he felt "relieved that the court struck down Prop. 22." He called the legislation "shameful" and said it "stripped us of our basic rights as workers."

But Uber, just like SEIU and the plaintiffs, are confident in the appeals process.

"We will appeal and we expect to win," Uber spokesperson Noah Edwardsen said in a statement. "Meanwhile, Prop[.] 22 remains in effect, including all of the protections and benefits it provides independent workers across the state."

SEIU 721 President Bob Schoonover put Prop. 22 in the same bucket of discriminatory legislation as anti-same sex marriage ballot measure Prop. 8 and Prop. 187, which targeted undocumented immigrants. Both those measures were overturned, and Schoonover expects the same for Prop. 22.

"The attempt by Uber, Lyft and others to circumvent our democracy has failed,"Schoonover said on the press call. "Corporations alone should not dictate laws in our state. SEIU will continue to stand alongside the drivers waging this critical fight to protect democracy from the highest spender."

Fintech

Judge Zia Faruqui is trying to teach you crypto, one ‘SNL’ reference at a time

His decisions on major cryptocurrency cases have quoted "The Big Lebowski," "SNL," and "Dr. Strangelove." That’s because he wants you — yes, you — to read them.

The ways Zia Faruqui (right) has weighed on cases that have come before him can give lawyers clues as to what legal frameworks will pass muster.

Photo: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images

“Cryptocurrency and related software analytics tools are ‘The wave of the future, Dude. One hundred percent electronic.’”

That’s not a quote from "The Big Lebowski" — at least, not directly. It’s a quote from a Washington, D.C., district court memorandum opinion on the role cryptocurrency analytics tools can play in government investigations. The author is Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui.

Keep ReadingShow less
Veronica Irwin

Veronica Irwin (@vronirwin) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol covering fintech. Previously she was at the San Francisco Examiner, covering tech from a hyper-local angle. Before that, her byline was featured in SF Weekly, The Nation, Techworker, Ms. Magazine and The Frisc.

The financial technology transformation is driving competition, creating consumer choice, and shaping the future of finance. Hear from seven fintech leaders who are reshaping the future of finance, and join the inaugural Financial Technology Association Fintech Summit to learn more.

Keep ReadingShow less
FTA
The Financial Technology Association (FTA) represents industry leaders shaping the future of finance. We champion the power of technology-centered financial services and advocate for the modernization of financial regulation to support inclusion and responsible innovation.
Enterprise

AWS CEO: The cloud isn’t just about technology

As AWS preps for its annual re:Invent conference, Adam Selipsky talks product strategy, support for hybrid environments, and the value of the cloud in uncertain economic times.

Photo: Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services

AWS is gearing up for re:Invent, its annual cloud computing conference where announcements this year are expected to focus on its end-to-end data strategy and delivering new industry-specific services.

It will be the second re:Invent with CEO Adam Selipsky as leader of the industry’s largest cloud provider after his return last year to AWS from data visualization company Tableau Software.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donna Goodison

Donna Goodison (@dgoodison) is Protocol's senior reporter focusing on enterprise infrastructure technology, from the 'Big 3' cloud computing providers to data centers. She previously covered the public cloud at CRN after 15 years as a business reporter for the Boston Herald. Based in Massachusetts, she also has worked as a Boston Globe freelancer, business reporter at the Boston Business Journal and real estate reporter at Banker & Tradesman after toiling at weekly newspapers.

Image: Protocol

We launched Protocol in February 2020 to cover the evolving power center of tech. It is with deep sadness that just under three years later, we are winding down the publication.

As of today, we will not publish any more stories. All of our newsletters, apart from our flagship, Source Code, will no longer be sent. Source Code will be published and sent for the next few weeks, but it will also close down in December.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bennett Richardson

Bennett Richardson ( @bennettrich) is the president of Protocol. Prior to joining Protocol in 2019, Bennett was executive director of global strategic partnerships at POLITICO, where he led strategic growth efforts including POLITICO's European expansion in Brussels and POLITICO's creative agency POLITICO Focus during his six years with the company. Prior to POLITICO, Bennett was co-founder and CMO of Hinge, the mobile dating company recently acquired by Match Group. Bennett began his career in digital and social brand marketing working with major brands across tech, energy, and health care at leading marketing and communications agencies including Edelman and GMMB. Bennett is originally from Portland, Maine, and received his bachelor's degree from Colgate University.

Enterprise

Why large enterprises struggle to find suitable platforms for MLops

As companies expand their use of AI beyond running just a few machine learning models, and as larger enterprises go from deploying hundreds of models to thousands and even millions of models, ML practitioners say that they have yet to find what they need from prepackaged MLops systems.

As companies expand their use of AI beyond running just a few machine learning models, ML practitioners say that they have yet to find what they need from prepackaged MLops systems.

Photo: artpartner-images via Getty Images

On any given day, Lily AI runs hundreds of machine learning models using computer vision and natural language processing that are customized for its retail and ecommerce clients to make website product recommendations, forecast demand, and plan merchandising. But this spring when the company was in the market for a machine learning operations platform to manage its expanding model roster, it wasn’t easy to find a suitable off-the-shelf system that could handle such a large number of models in deployment while also meeting other criteria.

Some MLops platforms are not well-suited for maintaining even more than 10 machine learning models when it comes to keeping track of data, navigating their user interfaces, or reporting capabilities, Matthew Nokleby, machine learning manager for Lily AI’s product intelligence team, told Protocol earlier this year. “The duct tape starts to show,” he said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kate Kaye

Kate Kaye is an award-winning multimedia reporter digging deep and telling print, digital and audio stories. She covers AI and data for Protocol. Her reporting on AI and tech ethics issues has been published in OneZero, Fast Company, MIT Technology Review, CityLab, Ad Age and Digiday and heard on NPR. Kate is the creator of RedTailMedia.org and is the author of "Campaign '08: A Turning Point for Digital Media," a book about how the 2008 presidential campaigns used digital media and data.

Latest Stories
Bulletins