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Uber could "shut down" for months in California if it had to requalify its drivers as employees

2020-08-13T06:58:10.445Z


A California court on Monday ordered Uber and rival Lyft to re-qualify their drivers as employees within ten days.


Uber plans to shut down its activity in California until November if the company is forced to immediately reclassify its independent drivers as employees, Dara Khosrowshahi, the group's boss, said on Wednesday.

Read also: Uber and Booking.com in turmoil

A California court on Monday ordered Uber and its American rival Lyft to requalify their drivers as employees within ten days, in accordance with the law of this American state in force since January 1, 2020, and drafted with the two online platforms of sights. The two leaders in the reservation of cars with driver (VTC) will appeal. They intend to solve the problem by organizing a referendum in November to annul the Californian text. "We believe that we are obeying the law but if the court decides no, and does not give us a deadline until November, then we will have to shut down Uber until the voters decide," Dara Khosrowshahi said during an interview on the MSNBC channel.“It would be a real shame in the midst of historic unemployment in California,” he said, referring to the economic recession and layoffs due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The American group embodies the “gig economy” , or task-based economy, which arouses strong criticism from unions and authorities in many countries.

Uber has spread across the world despite colossal losses and has so far failed to turn a profit. The group hopes to achieve this in 2021. “It's a model that we have built over more than ten years. We cannot hire tens of thousands of people overnight, ”insisted the boss, adding that teams“ were working on the subject ” . He doesn't think Uber will ultimately have to adopt the traditional wage model. But if society was forced to do so, "then we would have a much smaller service, with much higher prices, probably concentrated in city centers and more in small towns or suburbs like now" , he said. it detailed. California law wants to force companies that operate with a lot of contract workers to give them employee status, and therefore make them eligible for unemployment benefits and various social benefits.

"Bogus" arguments

"The drivers do not want to be employees, period" , for its part reacted Lyft, promising to "continue to fight for their independence". The two platforms affirm, polls in support, that most drivers want to keep the current model to benefit from greater professional flexibility. According to Lyft, drivers prefer to remain independent 4 to 1. The company estimates that 86% of its California drivers drive less than 20 hours per week and want to keep control of their schedule, because they are students, retirees. or have another job. Each of the two companies offered a compromise, with better working conditions and benefits for the drivers. "If we accepted this reasoning, the majority of industries that rely on technology to quickly gain market share could, with impunity, deprive legions of workers of the basic protections they are entitled to," noted Judge Ethan Schulman in his decision.

The arguments of Uber and Lyft do not hold water, outbid Xavier Becerra, the prosecutor of California, who accuses them of imposing precarious statutes. He welcomed this first court decision, which "broke through" the "bogus arguments" of the platforms. “What worker does not want sick leave?” He said indignantly in an interview on CNBC on Tuesday. "What worker does not want unemployment insurance in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis? What worker doesn't want to be paid for his overtime if he works 60 hours a week or 12 hours a day? ” .

Source: lefigaro

All business articles on 2020-08-13

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