Uber, Lyft and DoorDash Workers May Gain Employee Benefits Under New Labor Rule – By Tyler Walicek (Truthout) / Jan 12, 2024
The new rule could ease the precarity of gig workers’ labor conditions, but companies have vowed to oppose it.
Truthout is an indispensable resource for activists, movement leaders and workers everywhere. Please make this work possible with a quick donation.
This week, the Biden administration’s Department of Labor announced a significant change in a federal labor rule that classifies United States workers as either independent contractors or full employees. The new policy, published Wednesday, January 10, would make an increased number of freelance workers across many industries eligible for full-employee status, potentially obligating their employers to furnish them with higher wages, certain benefits and other worker protections.
This development will certainly not go uncontested by corporations, especially by Fortune 500 companies wholly dependent on freelance “gig” workers, among them Uber, Lyft and DoorDash. These giants, as well as a multitude of businesses large and small, enjoyed a preferential earlier ruling, a product of the Donald Trump-era Department, that had exempted many of their workers from the full-employee categorization. The Biden Labor Department’s overturning of this policy is certain to draw vigorous opposition from the beneficiaries of the former status quo.
The fact that the Labor Department has taken this notable step to secure employee protections bodes well for precarious workers, many of whom have been at the mercy of fluctuating conditions and a lack of protections, compromising the stability of their lives and livelihoods at a corporate whim. However, the most critical phase still lies ahead: The Labor Department has announced the rule, but it remains to be seen the extent to which they will enforce it.
