New York (CNN Business) A top Uber (UBER) executive attempted to defuse concerns about a potential existential threat to its business shortly after lawmakers in California approved a new bill that will make it more difficult for employers in the state to classify workers as independent contractors.

Tony West, Uber's chief legal officer, said Wednesday that the company believed a new test imposed by the bill, known as AB-5, would not require it to classify its fleet of drivers in the state as employees. The bill, which is expected to be signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in short order, would require a business like Uber to prove its contract workers are free from company control, perform work that is outside the usual course of business for the company and have independently established businesses providing similar work in order to be classified as such.

"We continue to believe drivers are properly classified as independent," West said in a lengthy statement Wednesday. "And because we'll continue to be responsive to what the vast majority of drivers tell us they want most — flexibility — drivers will not be automatically reclassified as employees, even after January of next year," when the bill would take effect.

In a tweet about West's statement, AB-5 bill author Lorena Gonzalez touted that the law has an enforcement mechanism to prevent companies from continuing to misclassify workers as independent contractors instead of employees.

The back-and-forth spotlights the high stakes of the pending legislation. Over the past decade, on-demand companies like Uber have built up massive fleets of drivers and delivery workers who are treated as independent contractors rather than employees. As a result, these businesses have largely not been obligated to provide minimum wage, overtime pay, workers' compensation, unemployment insurance and paid sick leave. Independent contractors also pay their own expenses.