Gig Companies Push Mass. Ballot Initiative
Massachusetts may perhaps develop into the subsequent battleground about the staff classification of gig workers following a coalition of app-primarily based businesses filed papers to qualify a ballot evaluate that would define their workers as impartial contractors.
The Massachusetts Coalition for Impartial Operate, which includes Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart, modeled its proposal on Proposition 22, which California voters handed in November 2020 following the most pricey ballot initiative campaign in the state’s history.
The evaluate would exempt gig workers from getting categorized as employees but offer them some minimal gains, like minimum amount spend of $eighteen for each hour and health treatment stipends for drivers who perform at the very least 15 several hours for each 7 days.
“This is the most effective of both worlds,” Pam Bennett, a DoorDash courier, mentioned in a statement furnished by the coalition. “This evaluate will assistance every single driver by preserving our capability to perform each time and however we want and also give us access to brand name-new gains that will truly assistance.”
If the evaluate is approved by the state’s lawyer typical, Maura Healey, backers could start off amassing the signatures needed to get the concern on the November 2022 ballot. “If put on the ballot subsequent 12 months, the proposal could make Massachusetts the epicenter for an pricey battle about the legal rights of gig workers,” Reuters mentioned.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expressed his assistance for the evaluate on Wednesday.
“In the point out of Massachusetts, we assume the ideal response is our IC+ design, which is impartial contractor with gains,” he mentioned all through an earnings connect with. “Our drivers like it. Prop 22 has confirmed to be unbelievably well-known with California drivers.”
But critics mentioned the initiative, like Prop 22, is a ploy by the businesses to stay away from spending taxes and workers’ payment and incorporates loopholes that would make a subminimum wage for employees.
“The gains promised beneath Prop 22 ended up a sham that have not materialized. As a network of about ten,000 gig workers in the point out of California, we have not found Uber drivers ready to access any meaningful gains due to the fact the implementation of Prop 22,” Shona Clarkson, an organizer for Gig Staff Rising, advised TechCrunch.
