{"id":2297,"date":"2021-01-26T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uniontrack.com\/blog\/?p=2297"},"modified":"2021-02-19T21:13:28","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T21:13:28","slug":"prop-22-american-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniontrack.com\/blog\/prop-22-american-workers","title":{"rendered":"Contractor or Employee? What California’s Prop 22 Could Mean for American Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ken Green
CEO & Founder
UnionTrack<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since their inception, companies like Uber and Lyft have classified their U.S.-based workers as independent contractors, thereby denying them access to basic labor protections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The workers argue they should be classified as employees who are granted those basic rights. Driven by this conviction, workers have brought numerous lawsuits against gig companies in states across the U.S. over the past few years, with mixed results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those charged with making policy decisions on the matter contend the struggle is due to the unique nature of work in the gig economy, which has made it difficult to form a consensus on the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a battle that has the potential to reshape the American labor movement. That\u2019s why it\u2019s worth watching state-level developments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In California, during the November 2020 election, voters ultimately denied gig drivers in the state the right to be classified as employees when they voted against Proposition 22. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s what you need to know about California\u2019s Prop 22, and what that ballot initiative could mean for workers across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gig Worker Classification Battle in California<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Drivers and other gig workers, with the support of numerous public officials, have been steadily taking small steps to win the right to be classified as employees in California. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progress was made in 2018 with a victory in the Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles<\/a> case. That ruling set a new, more rigid ABC-test standard<\/a> for classifying workers in California as independent contractors and placed the burden of that classification on employers, who had to assess whether a worker:<\/p>\n\n\n\n