Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates, owned by Uber, funded Proposition 22 or Prop 22, with more than $ 200 million, underscoring the importance of their move into the future of their businesses.
But in a major blow to businesses, Alameda County High Court Judge Frank Roesch ruled that “the entirety of Proposition 22 is not applicable” because a section of the measure “limits the power of ‘a future legislature to define application-based drivers as workers subject to the workers’ compensation law’ and ‘cannot be separated’ from the rest of the measure.
Roesch made specific reference to a section of the proposal that requires a seven-eighth legislative majority for approval of the amendments, which he decided challenged the state constitution.
“The prohibition of legislation authorizing collective bargaining of application-based drivers does not promote the right to work as an independent contractor, nor does it protect job flexibility, nor does it provide minimum standards of safety and pay for workers,” he wrote Roesch in his sentence.
“It seems to only protect the economic interest of network companies to have a divided and unassembled workforce, which is not a stated goal of the legislation.”
“We will file an immediate appeal and we are confident that the Court of Appeal will uphold Prop 22,” Geoff Vetter, a spokesman for the Coalition of Protectors and Application-Based Services Protect, said in a statement. “It is important to note that this High Court ruling is not binding and will be suspended immediately after our appeal. All provisions of Proposition 22 will remain in effect until the appeal process is completed.”
The decision stems from a lawsuit originally filed in January in California’s Supreme Court by the international service union Employees International Union (SEIU), three drivers and a ridehail client, who tried to overturn Prop 22 before being reinstated in court. lower.
In a statement, Bob Schoonover, president of the California State Council, said: “Judge Roesch’s ruling today to remove Proposition 22 could not be clearer: the voting initiative funded by the concert industry was unconstitutional and , therefore, cannot be applied.Companies like Uber and Lyft spent $ 225 million in an effort to take away workers ’rights in a way that violates the California Constitution.
“They have tried to increase their profits by undermining democracy and the state constitution. For two years, drivers have been saying that democracy cannot be bought. And today’s decision proves they were right,” he added.
Proposition 22 reacted to a state labor law, Assembly Bill 5 or AB-5, which went into effect on January 1, 2020, and codified an “ABC” test to determine whether workers are employees who are entitled to labor protections and benefits.
Under Proposition 22, companies can continue to treat drivers as independent contractors while granting concessions to some drivers, but not the full set of protections that workers would have obtained if the measure had not been approved.