Drivers say Uber, Lyft blocking unemployment pay, paid sick time

Ride-hailing services urge feds to aid drivers via stimulus package.

Unlike workers employed by restaurants, hotels and retail establishments, gig workers like Uber and Lyft drivers typically have not been able to collect unemployment benefits or take paid sick leave.

In a letter to President Donald Trump this week, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi asked that any economic stimulus or coronavirus-related legislation provide “protections and benefits for independent workers,” along with “the opportunity to legally provide them with a real safety net going forward.”

A Lyft spokeswoman said her company was also pushing to extend any forthcoming stimulus to drivers as well and said, “The vast majority of drivers on the Lyft platform use it to earn supplemental income,” rather than as a primary job.

But for many drivers, the problem is that the companies they work for have not complied with existing laws or agency rulings.

The highest-profile case is in California, which passed a law last year requiring companies to classify workers as employees if the companies control how they do the work, or if they hire workers to perform a job central to the business.

Uber launched a legal challenge to the law late last year, and the two ride-hailing companies are investing in a November ballot initiative that would effectively exempt them from it.

In the meantime, the companies have chosen not to report drivers’ income to the state, as is required of employers. While the companies’ legal challenges play out, the state is failing to approve many unemployment claims from drivers.

Loree Levy, a spokeswoman for the California Employment Development Department, which oversees unemployment benefits, said that applicants who were not eligible for benefits because the state lacked their wage information could follow up, and that the department would investigate, awarding benefits if it deems them misclassified. She said the department investigated many such cases even without a follow-up but declined to say whether it was working to require Uber and Lyft to report drivers’ wages.

Employers are obligated to contribute to a state unemployment insurance fund, but the companies’ failure to do so does not disqualify workers from receiving benefits. The state can pursue unmet payroll-tax obligations later.

Uber and Lyft declined to comment on the situation in California, but both companies have announced they would provide pay to drivers nationwide who were diagnosed with COVID-19 or were asked by a public health authority to isolate themselves.

CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK / NEW YORK TIMES 2017 Uber and Lyft have announced they would provide pay to drivers nationwide diagnosed with COVID-19 or asked by a public health authority to isolate themselves.