Washington State Advances Landmark Deal on Gig Drivers’ Job Status

As with other contractors, drivers must cover all payroll taxes and cannot unionize under federal law.

The bill is largely silent on unemployment benefits, something that employees are entitled to, but Washington State has frequently found that gig drivers should receive those benefits already. The bill will create a task force to study what the gig companies’ contributions to an unemployment insurance trust fund should be, an issue that has been contentious in other states.

One especially controversial feature of the bill is that it would block local jurisdictions from regulating drivers’ rights. A similar feature helped ignite opposition that killed the prospects for such a bill in New York State last year.

Seattle enacted a robust minimum wage law for gig drivers in 2020, which was intended to provide drivers with hourly pay of roughly $30 before expenses and was sharply criticized by gig companies. The statewide bill approved Friday preserved the current rates in Seattle, which will continue to be higher than the rest of the state, but would pre-empt similar legislation in the future.

Looming in the background of the legislative action in Washington State was the possibility of a ballot measure that could have locked in contractor status with weaker benefits for drivers. After California passed a law in 2019 that effectively classified gig workers as employees, Uber, Lyft and other gig companies spent roughly $200 million on a ballot measure, Proposition 22, that rolled back those protections. The legislation is still being litigated after a state judge deemed it unconstitutional.

Representative Liz Berry, who introduced the Washington State bill, said the differences between it and Proposition 22 “couldn’t be more stark.”

“My focus has been: What do the workers want? What are the drivers asking for? And we deliver on every single thing they asked for,” Ms. Berry said in an interview, adding that in contrast to California’s law, “our bill has real benefits that employees in the state of Washington enjoy.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/business/economy/washington-gig-worker.html