• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
Home Sci-tech

Coronavirus exposes Uber, Lyft drivers’ lack of safety net

25 March 2020, 7:36 PM  |
Reuters Reuters |  @SABCNews
Uber and Lyft driver Adama Fofana sprays disinfectant in his car in New York City.

Uber and Lyft driver Adama Fofana sprays disinfectant in his car in New York City.

Image: File: Reuters

Uber and Lyft driver Adama Fofana sprays disinfectant in his car in New York City.

As independent contractors, US ride-hail drivers for Uber and Lyft benefited from soaring trip demand and flexible work hours. But as the coronavirus brings large parts of the country to a halt, drivers and companies are facing the downside of an ambiguous contractor model.

Many Uber and Lyft drivers depend on the companies, but under US labor law don’t have the protections granted to regular employees.

Under pressure to ease the plight of its roughly 1.3-million US drivers and food delivery workers, Uber has seized on the crisis to advance its campaign for a larger overhaul of US employment law to permit it to offer more benefits while maintaining workers’ contractor status, changes it has requested from state and federal lawmakers for several years.

Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi on Monday urged US legislators to use the current crisis as an opportunity to implement changes to existing employment law by creating what the company calls a “third way” in-between employment and contractor status.

A spokesman for US Senator Chuck Schumer on Wednesday said a massive federal coronavirus aid bill will include reforms to make unemployment insurance available to self-employed and gig workers, adding that more details would be presented throughout the day.

Uber’s proposal drew sharp criticism from labor unions. “A ‘third way’ is just a euphemism for creating a new underclass of workers with fewer rights and protections,” said Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation.

In a statement, Uber said economic forecasts meant more people will need flexible, independent work in the future, which was why it wanted to raise the standard for that work.

Uber’s original benefits plan did not include unemployment insurance, the protection drivers seek most under current circumstances. A driver advocacy group in New York on Tuesday called on Uber and Lyft to contribute to emergency unemployment pay.

Uber did not comment on the lack of unemployment insurance, saying only that its proposed model included “extended benefits for independent contractors.”

Lyft did not respond to a request for comment.

Vulnerable gig workers

Demand for ride-hailing trips in recent weeks has declined by as much as 70% in some US cities and many drivers told Reuters they stopped driving over fears of getting exposed to the virus or infecting others.

Makela Edwards, an Uber driver from Oakland, California, enjoyed the steady pay and flexible hours driving afforded after leaving her job as a public school teacher at the end of 2018. Now, demand for Uber rides has all but dried up.

“This coronavirus has really lifted the lid about how vulnerable I am and how we as gig workers are being left out of the discussion,” Edwards said.

Some drivers said they planned to apply for unemployment benefits regardless of their contractor status, hoping for more flexibility under the current circumstances.

Others said they have switched to food delivery as a more reliable source of income with roughly a third of the US population ordered to stay home. Uber on Wednesday said the number of people signing up to deliver food in the United States and Canada doubled last week from the week prior but did not provide additional details.

Uber and rival Lyft Inc have established funds to compensate drivers and delivery people diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed in quarantine by health officials for up to 14 days.

Uber said payments have started to go out but declined to share additional details. Lyft did not respond to a request for comment.

The companies have also said they would distribute hand sanitizers. But both have closed their local hubs, places where drivers can go to receive in-person help or use the bathroom, and drivers do not know where to receive disinfectants.

Uber in a statement said suppliers had prioritized orders for healthcare workers, with its orders being moved down the queue several times. The company said it would communicate a distribution plan in light of the hub closures, but did not provide additional details. Lyft did not respond.

Most workers’ benefits, including health insurance and workers’ compensation, are attached to an employment relationship, said Pauline Kim, an employment law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

Providing contractors with added benefits such as unemployment insurance requires a change or the passage of a new law, Kim said, adding that the current crisis highlighted the gap in protection between gig workers and regular employees.

Confirmed coronavirus cases around the world: 

Share article
Tags: USUberCoronavirusLyft
Previous Post

IMF says coronavirus to hit sub-Saharan Africa’s growth hard

Next Post

Ramaphosa applauded for decisions taken to curb spread of coronavirus

Related Posts

The logo of the US Central Intelligence Agency is shown in the lobby of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Russia blocks CIA, FBI websites for ‘spreading false information’: TASS

27 January 2023, 7:23 PM
People work at the site after the announcement of the discovery of 4 300-year-old sealed tombs in Egypt's Saqqara necropolis, in Giza, Egypt, January 26, 2023.

Archaeologist hails possibly ‘oldest’ mummy yet found in Egypt

27 January 2023, 3:06 PM
A boy plays with water on a hot summer day.

These groups are the most vulnerable to suffer effects of heat wave

27 January 2023, 11:17 AM

LIVE: 3D Construction Printing Housing Project launch

27 January 2023, 11:00 AM
3D construction printing technology.

3D technology project aims to modernise construction industry: DSI

27 January 2023, 10:20 AM
3D construction printing technology.

SA’s first 3D construction printing technology to be unveiled

27 January 2023, 7:15 AM
Next Post
File Image: Professor Ndletyana Ndletyana says there is a culture of not delivering basic services in the Eastern Cape.

Ramaphosa applauded for decisions taken to curb spread of coronavirus

Most Viewed

  • 24hrs
  • Week
  • Month
  • Northern Cape’s Kakamas to be exempted from blackouts
  • Scorcher predicted in Northern Cape for two weeks
  • Chances of reaching Stage 8 blackouts are receding: Eskom
  • Residents shut down Komani over power woes
  • Eswatini human rights lawyer gunned down in the presence of his family
  • Parts of the Northern Cape to be exempted from rolling blackouts
  • VIDEO | St Benedict College’s Matric learner gets 11 distinctions
  • Limpopo matriculant from child-headed household attains diploma pass
  • Female circumcision practice thriving in Eastern Cape
  • Babes Wodumo breaks her silence at Mampintsha’s funeral
  • Diepsloot residents block N14 highway
  • LIVE: City of Joburg Council elects new mayor
  • Al Jamah’s Thapelo Amad touted to be Joburg’s new mayor
  • UPDATE: Thapelo Amad elected as new Mayor of Joburg
  • KZN farmer fined R1.5 million for unauthorised water use

LATEST

Eskom says stage 4 will be implemented in the evenings from 16:00pm until 05:00am over the weekend.
  • Business

Stage 3 load shedding kicks in from Saturday morning: Eskom  


Gauteng ANC chair Panyaza Lesufi
  • Politics

Removal of Phalatse will yield similar results in other municipalities: Lesufi


Mandela who advocated for reconciliation, died on this day at his home in Johannesburg at the age of 95.
  • South Africa

67 Blankets for Madiba campaign goes all out to celebrate 9th anniversary


FILE PHOTO: Institute of Political Studies (IEP) or "Sciences Po" main entrance at the Institute in Paris, France, May 28, 2013. Picture taken May 28, 2013. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo
  • Lifestyle

Top French university bans use of ChatGPT to prevent plagiarism


Five former Memphis police officers were charged on Thursday (January 26) with murder in the death of Tyre Nichols, a Black man who died three days after a traffic stop, prosecutors said.
  • World

United States awaits release of Tyre Nichols’ video


Electricity pylons are seen along the cooling tower of the defunct Orlando Power Station in Soweto.
  • Business

More South Africans join calls for national state of disaster to address electricity crisis


Weather

  • About the SABC
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Site Map

SABC © 2022

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2022

Previous IMF says coronavirus to hit sub-Saharan Africa’s growth hard
Next Ramaphosa applauded for decisions taken to curb spread of coronavirus