Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Gig economy work in peril
Pandemic stunting jobs at places such as Lyft, Uber, DoorDash
SAN FRANCISCO — It was just after 11 a.m. on March 11 when Jaime Maldonado, 51, pulled his rented Nissan into a parking lot outside San Francisco International Airport. He figured he had a long wait ahead of him — about two hours — before Lyft would ping him to pick up a passenger.
Occasionally, jets roared overhead — but not many, which meant not enough passengers for Maldonado, who said that before the coronavirus outbreak, he spent just 20 to 40 minutes waiting outside the airport before getting a customer.
To kill time, Maldonado got out of his car, looping the mask he recently started wearing during rides around his wrist, and went to talk to other drivers who were also waiting for passengers.
As the minutes ticked by, he wondered out loud, “What am I going to do to pump gas and feed my kids tomorrow?” His number of rides in a typical week had dropped to around 50 from 100 earlier in the month, he said, and his payout had plunged by half to about $600 a week, from which Lyft would subtract the rental fee for his car.
The coronavirus pandemic is exposing the fragile situations of gig economy workers — the Uber and Lyft drivers, food-delivery couriers and TaskRabbit furniture builders who are behind the convenience-as-a-service apps that are now part of everyday life. Classified as freelancers and not full-time employees, these workers have few protections like guaranteed wages, sick pay and health care, which are benefits that are critical in a crisis.
While gig economy companies like Uber and DoorDash have promoted themselves as providing flexible work that can be lifelines to workers during economic downturns, interviews with 20 ride-hailing drivers and food delivery couriers in Europe and the United States over the past week showed that the services have been anything but that.
Instead, as the fallout from the virus spreads, gig workers’ earnings have plummeted and many have become disgruntled about the lack of health care. Public health agencies have recommended social isolation to insulate people from the outbreak, but these workers must continue interacting with others to pay their bills.
“They’ve got no social insurance at all,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who has proposed federal legislation to provide benefits for the estimated 15 million Americans who depend on gig-economy jobs as their primary source of income. “A large swath of workers will be left with nothing.”
In recent weeks, some gig-economy companies have responded by offering basic sick leave provisions and cleaning products like hand sanitizer for drivers. Uber, Lyft, Instacart and DoorDash said that they would pay workers for 14 days of work if they have a coronavirus diagnosis and need to stay home. Uber and Lyft also said they would provide cleaning products, although they have struggled to place mass orders and get the products to drivers.
Postmates, DoorDash, Uber Eats and GrubHub have also introduced a “nocontact delivery” service so drivers can leave food orders on the front step of a customer’s address without interacting with them.
“Not every job can work from home and certainly that is the reality for our drivers and couriers who need to pay their bills,” Andrew Macdonald, an Uber senior vice president who oversees global operations, said in an interview. “What we’re trying to do is make that experience as safe as possible.”