States like New York and California have made gig workers eligible for jobless benefits and sick days, but the companies have allegedly resisted complying, the New York Times reported. In a call with analysts last week, the Uber chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, alluded to the problem, suggesting that his hands were tied because Uber drivers are independent contractors. “This situation certainly demonstrates the downside of attaching basic protections to W-2 employment,” he said. And in a letter to President Trump on Monday, Khosrowshahi asked that any economic stimulus or coronavirus-related legislation provide “protections and benefits for independent workers,” along with “the opportunity to legally provide them with a real safety net going forward.” A Lyft spokeswoman said her company was also pushing to extend any forthcoming stimulus to drivers, and said, “The vast majority of drivers on the Lyft platform use it to earn supplemental income,” rather than as a primary job. But for many drivers, the problem is not a legal void. It is that the companies they work for have not complied with existing laws or agency rulings. The highest-profile case is in California, which passed a law last year requiring companies to classify workers as employees if the companies control how they do the work, or if they hire workers to perform a job central to the business.
