NYC law could force Uber and Lyft to keep dangerous drivers on the road
reason.com
reason.com
Cheaper and faster than Uber and Lyft. (Slightly sketchier drivers.)
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> It's unclear whether NYC will appeal the recent decision or instead accept that the law needs to be rewritten. A better idea would be to scrap the misguided idea entirely.
(Notwithstanding the other arguments in TFA), the author is arguing that so-called non-"traditional" workers don't need and thus might not deserve "just cause" protections. The author also frames "just cause" for non-"traditional" employees as a primarily progressive political objective.
> One of the hallmarks of the gig economy is flexibility. Drivers work when they please and often use multiple platforms, while the labor supply is ideally meant to fluctuate dynamically based on demand. Attaching more rules to driver deactivation inevitably raises labor costs as platforms are less able to weed out bad apples. In the end, the flexibility that drivers themselves most prize when it comes to gig work will be eroded, as companies respond to the regulations by potentially limiting the number of drivers they allow on the platform.
The supposed "flexibility" is usually Uber's flexibility at the expense of Uber drivers' flexibility [1]. Assuming that the drivers do "most prize" their flexibility, it would be easy to most prize one not quite good aspect of the job that is much better than the other aspects of the job. What's more, the premise is that everything that burdens gig companies with massive profits will (not is likely to, will) necessarily burden the drivers. If Uber/Lyft were to maliciously comply (I'm using the word "malicious" idiomatically [2]) with a just cause law by needlessly terminating or reducing the job quality of drivers whom wouldn't have been terminated before the existence of the law, the author would attribute most blame to the just cause law and not to Uber/Lyft.
> A companion "just cause" bill for food delivery drivers also recently passed in New York and was not opposed by gig platforms like Uber, likely because it lacked the onerous 14-day notice provision of the rideshare version.
> It's unclear whether NYC will appeal the recent decision or instead accept that the law needs to be rewritten. A better idea would be to scrap the misguided idea entirely.
If I seem to inappropriately attribute an anti-labor sentiment to the author that you believe isn't there, please take notice: The author is asking people to give up on the idea of making "just cause" laws for gig drivers. There's no rewritten version (not even a version similar to the other bill for food delivery drivers) that would be better than nothing, the author concludes.
As for my opinion, a better, safety-respecting just cause law for drivers might let companies immediately suspend the driver for just cause proceedings so long as the company provides some level of pay during the suspension period or sets up back pay.