CALIFORNIA LAWMAKERS MOVE TO PROTECT GIG-ECONOMY WORKERS

THE CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY passed legislation on Wednesday that could have a profound effect on hundreds of thousands of workers by requiring companies like Uber, Postmates, Amazon Flex, and others to recognize much of their workforce as employees entitled to labor protections and benefits. The proposed law cuts to the heart of one of Silicon Valley’s fiercest debates …

Supreme Court will tuck into UberEats case about drivers’ benefit rights

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada will help decide whether a proposed class-action lawsuit against ride-hailing service Uber can move ahead. The high court has agreed to hear Uber’s challenge of an Ontario Court of Appeal decision that paved the way for the suit aimed at securing a minimum wage, vacation pay and other benefits for drivers. The man behind the planned …

The tax man may be coming for Uber and Lyft drivers

The IRS believes many Uber and Lyft drivers are cheating on their taxes, and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., is pushing legislation that would dramatically reduce the income threshold above which gig economy companies that rely on contractors must report to the IRS. As a means of cracking down, the legislation would force Uber and Lyft to …

Postmates workers want minimum delivery guarantees and at least $15 per hour

IPO-bound Postmates is under fire right now after making some changes to its payments structure for its delivery workers. Organizers at Working Washington say these changes can reduce pay for typical jobs by up to 30 percent. Up until this past weekend, Postmates  guaranteed its delivery workers at least $4 per job. Postmates has since gotten rid of …

Rise of the apps: In Asheville, food delivery service infuriates some, while others profit

…It’s not just delivery drivers making money on services like Uber Eats, Waitr and smaller, more-local versions like Takeout Central. Some restaurants are embracing what Hiers calls the “culture of to-go.” …Richard Cundiff, who owns Rocky’s Hot Chicken Shack, said the business of filling to-go orders has exploded since he first opened the West Asheville location in 2011, adding …

Uber Drivers Are Not Employees, National Relations Board Rules. Drivers Saw It Coming

The NLRB released the advisory memo on Tuesday, nearly a month after it was originally issued. It concludes that Uber drivers are independent contractors and not employees — a classification that means they have no right to form a union or bargain collectively. The memo, which comes from the NLRB’s general counsel’s office, serves as …

No matter how much Uber exploits its workers, it still can’t make money

…The company lost 3.0 billion in 2018; it had $11.2 billion in revenue. Given the degree to which the company is able to dodge normal taxi-service costs by offloading them to their poor drivers, that fact alone is pretty damning. And about Uber’s business model: There are myriad stories about how bad it is to be an …

Amazon offers employees $10K and 3 months’ pay to start their own delivery businesses

Following news of Amazon’s plans to reduce Prime shipping down to one day, the company this morning announced an expansion of its Delivery Service Partner program, which now includes a new incentive that encourages existing Amazon employees to start their own package delivery company. The partner program, first announced last year, includes access to Amazon’s delivery technology, hands-on training and …

Food delivery, freight and logistics: How Uber aims to move things around the world

SAN FRANCISCO — Uber, the ride-hailing pioneer, is set to go public on Friday with a valuation of around $82 billion, in the most highly valued stock introduction in years. But Uber says its real strength isn’t in being a taxi alternative. Instead, it is its ability to apply its vast data trove and routing software to …

Uber gambled on driver arbitration and might have come up the loser

For Uber Technologies Inc., using legal arbitration to deal with driver compensation complaints — over anything from pay to overtime to mileage reimbursement — seemed like the smart play: It would preclude costly class-action litigation, it was private and few drivers would go to the trouble. That may have been a giant miscalculation. As the …