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The judge does not understand what a "gig" is. Uber drivers can choose to drive one, twelve, or zero hours in any given day. They can suddenly stop working by s
by blisterpeanuts 6y ago
The judge does not understand what a "gig" is. Uber drivers can choose to drive one, twelve, or zero hours in any given day. They can suddenly stop working by simply not accepting any more ride requests. It's the ultimate remote, self-directed, self-managed job.
An employee can't make such decisions; they do as they are told or they are fired.
Uber drivers are private, self-owned businesses that rent out their time and equipment to a corporation on a completely arbitrary basis. The company counts on an oversupply of such drivers to meet demand and does not need to manage the supply other than to continually recruit more people.
I suspect this ruling will be overturned, if not in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, then in the Supreme Court.
- jdm2212 6y agoCalifornia law is pretty clear on the matter. You don't have to like the law (it's a dumb law), but the law is clear.
- quadrifoliate 6y ago> Uber drivers are private, self-owned businesses that rent out their time and equipment to a corporation on a completely arbitrary basis. As far I know, this is not true. Uber dictates the prices that drivers can charge, they cannot set an arbitrary price for their own labor. Is that not the case?
- gocard 6y agoIs the driver charging the passenger? Or is Uber charging the passenger, and putting forth a contract at a set rate which individual drivers can accept or decline?
- blisterpeanuts 6y agoTrue, Uber sets the prices and also acts as the broker/middleman. Kind of a super-broker.
- Akababa 6y agoI'm not sure that this makes an economic difference - ultimately Uber's algorithm will set the price where supply intersects demand. Or equivalently, drivers can raise their own prices/restrict supply by only working during surge hours.
- exhaze 6y agoUber has been rolling out a feature to allow drivers in California to set their own prices, and today rolled it out to the entire state. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/uber-california-driver-rates-new-policy-pricing-money-wage-a9613286.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/uber-calif...
- rsanek 6y agoSmall correction: not today, this article is from over a month ago.
- Polylactic_acid 6y agoThe judge certainly does understand what is going here. Secure employment is being replaced with "gigs" to the point where a huge chunk of the country has no stable income and is one week away from homelessness.
- seankimdesign 6y agoI guess that's one theory: Uber, purely by existing, somehow managed to significantly reduce the number of secure employment opportunities available in the US and lured happily employed people onto a life that's inches away from homelessness. In the same vein, if we were to shut down Uber right now and went back to the taxi model we should be able to salvage our economy.
- LatteLazy 6y ago> Secure employment vs > At will employment
- anticensor 6y agoThis is not black-or-white. You can have parts of both.
- LatteLazy 6y agoCan you? Not trying to argue, I am a limey brit so I don't know the exact details. /r/legaladvice seems to be filled with people being fired for no reason or just de-scheduled or having their wages cut and it's all perfectly legal...