A car with Uber and Lyft stickers | Getty Images Both sides of California gig labor feud say coronavirus proves their point

BERKELEY — It didn't take long for both sides of California's gig labor debate to seize on coronavirus as a reason to enforce new protections — or scrap them entirely.

Drivers for Uber and Lyft say that the disease poses a serious risk to their well-being and that they should receive paid sick leave, unemployment benefits and other financial assistance to weather the ongoing crisis, just as full-time employees would at other companies.


But Republicans say the social isolation rules that last for months are reason to move in the opposite direction. Many workers have already been struggling to adapt to the new employment landscape. In the coming weeks, more workers forced to stay home will need contracting gigs from various employers, especially as they juggle unpredictable demands of child care and health concerns.

California lawmakers last year enshrined a state Supreme Court decision that dictates more workers should be treated as employees, not independent contractors. While labor unions hailed Assembly Bill 5 as a critical backstop for wage and benefit guarantees, it has faced a fierce backlash from multiple industries arguing it will undercut businesses and deprive Californians of work.

Thus far, Uber and Lyft have insisted their workers still do not qualify as full-time employees under the law. Uber's CEO told investors Thursday that drivers' contractor status will help the company survive a social isolation stretch in which rides have already plummeted by 60 to 70 percent in cities succumbing to the pandemic.

But an attorney actively challenging gig companies filed an emergency motion Thursday in San Francisco demanding that Lyft stop misclassifying drivers as contractors and “denying these workers their rights under the Labor Code, including state mandated paid sick leave.”

“This crisis starkly demonstrates the harm that Lyft’s misclassification of its drivers is causing,” the filing argues. “Lyft’s failure to provide paid sick leave means Lyft drivers will need to work while sick to make ends meet and substantially increases the likelihood Lyft drivers will spread illnesses to the general public.”

A Lyft spokesperson declined to comment on an active court case.

Some of the drivers who remain on the road are clamoring for paid sick leave and other rights accorded to full employees, arguing that they face heightened risk and plunging business opportunities. That comes as AB 5’s author, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), pushes regulators to extend lifelines to workers she says are misclassified.

Uber and Lyft have offered paid sick leave to drivers who have been diagnosed with the virus or quarantined, and Uber is pledging financial assistance to drivers who have been forced to self-isolate by public health authorities. An Uber spokesperson said in a statement that drivers’ “well-being is at the top of our minds, and we have a dedicated team working around the clock to support them.”

“I recognize many people — drivers, couriers, restaurant workers — are suffering right now,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a Thursday call with investors, touting the financial assistance on offer and adding the company was “actively lobbying” to ensure “independent and on-demand workers are included in relief packages” advanced by policymakers.

Drivers pushing for more rights have seized on Khosrowshahi’s message to investors. He noted the company’s lack of full employee benefits bolsters its financial position and said the situation “certainly demonstrates the downside of attaching basic protections to W-2 employment.”

A union-backed gig workers’ group quickly organized a conference call in which drivers blasted Khosrowshahi and demanded safeguards like paid sick leave, free screenings and reimbursement for the cost of sanitizing their vehicles. An allied gig workers’ group had already circulated a petition demanding that California officials immediately enforce AB 5 and “prioritize access to state and local benefit programs that may benefit misclassified gig workers.”

“To say we are at a higher risk of contracting coronavirus is an understatement,” a full-time Lyft driver named James Wiest said in response to Khosrowshahi, noting that drivers continue to pick up riders Los Angeles’ busy airport — a hub for potential virus carriers. “Because we are independent contractors, Uber and Lyft have left us without any real support during an ongoing public health crisis.”

The day before Khosrowshahi’s comments, Gonzalez pressed California’s labor commissioner and its unemployment insurance department to open up unemployment benefits to workers who, under the state’s more stringent new standard, have been wrongly classified as contractors.

“I authored AB 5 precisely for the moment we are in now,” Gonzalez wrote in a letter. “These Californians need our help, and EDD has the authority and legal framework to aggressively address misclassification and provide these workers with the benefits they deserve.”

A representative for the Labor Commissioner’s office said officials were still reviewing the letter.

While labor advocates say the crisis proves how important full-time benefits are to more employees, others see an onerous mandate that will exacerbate a burgeoning economic crisis.

Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin), who championed an unsuccessful effort to repeal AB 5, has written Gov. Gavin Newsom asking him to suspend enforcement of laws that undermine remote work. He said the pandemic has reduced opportunities for independent contractors who already lost jobs due to AB 5.

“Recently enacted limitations on independent contracting — the likes of which exist in no other state — are causing a loss of flexibility over the time and place of work and a reduction in economic opportunity for as many as a million Californians,” Kiley wrote, arguing Newsom to suspend the law “in this time of peril and uncertainty.”

That call rippled to Washington, where House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threw his weight behind halting a law that he decried in a tweet for having "crushed the gig economy, leading to many lost jobs for freelancers."

"As our country continues to navigate coronavirus, Gov Newsom + the California State Legislature must repeal this bill, or at minimum stop its current enforcement, and support gig workers," McCarthy tweeted.

Restrictions on public life and the Legislature’s early adjournment this week have upended the usual rhythms of California politics and layered new uncertainty on policy fights. That includes the tech industry’s efforts to strike a deal in Sacramento that would avert a costly ballot fight over labor rights and the outcome of that proposed ballot initiative itself, should it go before voters in November.

A spokesperson for the ballot initiative campaign praised app-based workers who are “helping neighbors and the most vulnerable among us get food, groceries, medicine and other necessities” and warned that the “ongoing effort to force rideshare and delivery drivers to become employees” would “not lead to new benefits.

“Instead, it would lead to the widespread elimination of work for hundreds of thousands of Californians, jeopardizing these essential services at a time when millions are counting on them,” spokesperson Stacey Wells said.