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Congress not too long ago launched the Worker Flexibility and Choice Act (WFCA), which might do fairly the alternative of what its title suggests: It could make it so gig staff like me usually are not protected by federal minimal wage legal guidelines and different employee protections–and it might block states from introducing their very own rules to take care of respectable requirements.
As a full-time Lyft driver working in southern California since 2017, I do know the significance of flexibility at work. That’s why I made a decision to begin driving within the first place–the flexibility to work when and for a way lengthy I needed.
Nevertheless, the truth of gig work will not be so rosy. App-based firms corresponding to Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash spend tens of millions to persuade lawmakers and the general public that they need to be exempt from employee safety legal guidelines that apply to all different employers. Working by lobbying teams corresponding to Flex and the Coalition for Workforce Innovation (CWI)–the very group behind the WFCA–they pitch policymakers the false premise that drivers like me can’t have worker rights and advantages. They are saying that I’m an impartial contractor, at the same time as key features of my job–like who I choose up, the place I take them, and the way a lot cash I make—are set by Lyft.
“Flexibility” and “independence” sound good, however right here’s the reality: When you need to work over 50 hours every week to make ends meet, when you need to weigh each hour that you just don’t work in opposition to the misplaced revenue, if you end up one accident or sickness away from monetary wreck, flexibility and independence imply nothing.
Though I made an honest residing as a driver initially, my pay per hour dropped by about 25% round a yr after I began. Lyft had unilaterally reduce drivers’ charges, forcing me to work longer hours to earn the identical sum of money. That’s after I realized that “gig work flexibility” pushed me to work longer and through particular occasions. My pay continues to be unpredictable, particularly as a result of I incur bills–like rising fuel costs–that I can not cross on to Lyft or my passengers.
In contrast to workers, I’m paid just for a few of my working time. In California, Uber and Lyft declare that they are going to assure pay equal to 120% of California’s minimal wage—which involves $18 per hour—however this pay customary doesn’t account for the third of the time that drivers spend ready to be assigned a brand new passenger or coming back from journeys to outlying areas. One study discovered that the minimal hourly pay for app-based drivers is basically $5.64 per hour, after accounting for all working time and all bills.
Additional, though we face well being and security dangers like carjackings at alarming rates, app-based drivers don’t have paid sick depart, staff’ compensation, or employer-provided medical insurance coverage. Drivers find yourself counting on GoFundMe campaigns to pay for hospital payments and automotive repairs. Households of killed drivers have completed the identical for funeral bills.
So why, based on the gig firms, aren’t they accountable as employers? As a result of their drivers get to decide on after they work. There have to be a tradeoff, the gig firms argue, between schedule flexibility on the one hand and employer duty and employment-based rights and protections on the opposite.
However this tradeoff is a lie. Many workers—together with, I wager, many high-level executives at Uber and Lyft—get to work a schedule that matches their wants, whereas additionally having fun with the rights and protections that include being an worker, together with the correct to a protected, wholesome, and discrimination-free office, and advantages like paid depart, medical insurance, and retirement financial savings.
The impartial contractor mannequin will not be mandatory for the businesses’ operations. After the EU proposed requiring gig firms to deal with their staff as workers, Uber’s CEO reassured buyers that the corporate would proceed to thrive as a result of it “can make any model work.” A latest research by researchers at Northeastern College and Boston School of an organization that reclassified its drivers as workers in response to a change in California legislation discovered that the drivers loved the identical scheduling flexibility that they had as impartial contractors.
Lawmakers shouldn’t roll again staff’ rights within the title of “flexibility.” As an alternative, they need to guarantee fundamental office rights and requirements apply equally to staff throughout the board. Many gig staff work full time for the apps and depend on these jobs as their main supply of revenue. We ought to be entitled to livable and predictable wages. We additionally ought to have advantages corresponding to well being and accident insurance coverage, staff’ compensation, and unemployment insurance coverage to assist get us by arduous occasions. And we deserve the correct to collectively cut price with the gig firms in regards to the phrases and situations of our work.
Popping out of the pandemic, a time when many professional-class staff loved unprecedented scheduling flexibility, Congress and different policymakers want to make sure extra flexibility for all staff, not fewer rights for underpaid staff like me.
Mike Robinson is a California-based rideshare driver and member of the Cellular Employees Alliance.
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This story was initially featured on Fortune.com