Lyft, Uber won’t say if they will comply or resist San Francisco’s subpoenas
"If your company is valued at $62B, you can afford to give your workers health care."
San Francisco’s city attorney has issued formal
subpoenas to Uber and Lyft in order to ascertain whether the
ride-sharing companies classify their drivers as employees or
contractors in the wake of a landmark decision handed down by
the California Supreme Court earlier this month.
Under the opinion in that
case, known as Dynamex,
the court found that workers can only be considered contractors
under a three-part test that seeks to determine exactly how
independent they are.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera
will now seek "proof that Uber and Lyft have lawfully classified
drivers as independent contractors or provide their drivers with
minimum wage, sick leave, health care contributions, and paid
parental leave."
"We are not going to turn a
blind eye if companies in San Francisco deny workers their pay and
benefits," he said in a statementissued
Tuesday. "We are not going to tolerate any company shirking its
responsibility to pay for benefits and shifting that burden onto
taxpayers when drivers without health insurance turn to the
emergency room. If your company is valued at $62 billion, you can
afford to give your workers health care."
Davis White, an Uber
spokesman, declined to respond to Ars' questions as to whether the
company would be complying or challenging these subpoenas.
Similarly, Lyft did not
respond to Ars' inquiry.