California, home to the headquarters of Uber and a significant chunk of the company’s U.S. business, was the first state to issue regulations covering the ride-hailing giant, in 2013. It’s once again at the forefront of the debate about how to manage Uber—specifically, what the company’s obligations to its drivers should be. Uber considers them independent contractors. In June a state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board judge determined that a former Uber driver should be treated as an employee. In September a federal judge in San Francisco granted class-action status to Uber drivers who contend they’re really employees and thus entitled to reimbursement for gas and other expenses.
On April 20, a committee in California’s Democrat-led Assembly is scheduled to vote on what would be the first statewide law to give Uber drivers the right to create a unionlike system for independent contractors, following the passage of a similar citywide ordinance in Seattle late last year. “This bill ensures that the millions of Californians who aren’t treated as employees, including workers in the evolving gig economy, simply have the option to organize,” Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a San Diego Democrat who sponsored the bill, said in a March statement.
