In the COVID-19 era, gig workers played a huge role in satisfying the needs of customers. When the whole world was locked due to the pandemic, the delivery partners were the ones who knocked on the door with a handful of grocery items, medicines, and food to deliver at the exact time. They didn’t care about the deadliest COVID-19, they cared about the people’s needs.
The Biden government has now taken a new step to grant special status to gig workers in the United States. The ultimate aim of introducing the new policy is to protect workers from misclassification. Trump’s IC rule, which was released at the end of Trump’s ruling, was replaced by the Biden administration.
The proposal was announced on Tuesday 2022. The US Labor Department stated that it wants to classify the gig workers as “employees or independent contractors in business for themselves.” When we classify an employee, there should be a labor code in place to provide workers with protection and benefits such as workplace safety measurements, minimum wages, and health benefits, but the companies stated that it may result in lower operational costs and fewer flexible hours.
The draft proposal will remain open for 45 days so individuals can comment on it after the announcement of the Labor Department proposal on Thursday. The comment period will be closed on November 28, 2022. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the labor department is going to classify who is an employee and who is an independent contractor.
“We continue in our enforcement work to identify workers who are not properly classified, in construction, health care, even in restaurants, where we found that dishwashers were improperly classified as independent contractors to avoid paying them overtime.”
This announcement has had an impact on popular gig economy platforms like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash Inc and other organizations that use independent contractors as their staff, resulting in a significant loss in their share value. Uber stock was down 10%, Lyft stock was down 12%, and DoorDash Inc stock was down 6%.
Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart inc and other private entities are hugely dependent on gig workers. So the companies argue that classifying gig workers as employees will affect their businesses. However, legal authorities assured that there had previously been no special provisions for gig workers, so now is the time to ensure their safety and provide the same protection as other workers.
Steve Anderson is an Australian crypto enthusiast. He is a specialist in management and trading for over 5 years. Steve has worked as a crypto trader, he loves learning about decentralisation, understanding the true potential of the blockchain.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/10/17/provisions-for-gig-workers-uber-lyft-and-doordash-are-facing-losses/