This decision makes it abundantly clear that Uber and Lyft have been breaking the law for years. The only thing ‘radical’ and ‘unprecedented’ is the scope of Uber and Lyft’s misconduct. https://t.co/EHeQGnjqYn
— Dennis Herrera (@dennisherrera) October 23, 2020
In a statement, San Francisco city attorney Dennis Herrera said “This decision makes it abundantly clear that Uber and Lyft have been breaking the law for years. The only thing ‘radical’ and ‘unprecedented’ is the scope of Uber and Lyft’s misconduct. This is a victory for the people of California and for every driver who has been denied fair wages, paid sick days, and other benefits by these companies…The law is clear: Drivers can continue to have all of the flexibility they currently enjoy while getting the rights they deserve as employees. The only thing preventing that is Uber and Lyft’s greed.”
The companies claim that if forced to comply with AB5, it would force many drivers out of work. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wrote on the company’s website this week that “According to our research, if Uber instead employed drivers, we would have only 260,000 available full-time roles—and therefore 926,000 drivers would no longer be able to work on Uber going forward.”