DRIVE NOW May 2021
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Australia's only Magazine for the Commercial Passenger Transport Industry. News and views for Drivers, Owners and Operators of Taxi, Hire Car, Limousine, Ride Share, Booked Hire Vehicles, Rank and Hail Cars.
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Uber and Lyft are employees!<br />
Biden administration turns back the clock and is looking at classifying<br />
rideshare and gig workers as employees – not contractors.<br />
by Reuters<br />
OVERSEAS news<br />
WASHINGTON, USA — Earlier this<br />
month, the Biden administration<br />
blocked a Trump-era rule that<br />
would have made it easier to<br />
classify gig workers who work for<br />
companies like Uber and Lyft as<br />
independent contractors instead<br />
of employees, signaling a potential<br />
policy shift toward greater worker<br />
protections.<br />
“By withdrawing the independent<br />
contractor rule, we will help<br />
preserve essential worker rights<br />
and stop the erosion of worker<br />
protections that would have<br />
occurred had the rule gone into<br />
effect,” Labor Secretary Marty<br />
Walsh said in a statement.<br />
“Too often, workers lose<br />
important wage and related<br />
protections when employers<br />
misclassify them as independent<br />
contractors,” he said.<br />
Walsh told Reuters in an interview<br />
last week that a lot of U.S. gig<br />
workers should be classified as<br />
“employees” who deserve work<br />
benefits. His comments hurt<br />
stocks of companies that employ<br />
gig labor.<br />
Walsh said that his department<br />
would have conversations in<br />
coming months with companies<br />
that employ gig labor to make sure<br />
workers have access to consistent<br />
wages, sick time, healthcare and<br />
“all of the things that an average<br />
employee in America can access.”<br />
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce<br />
said it hopes the administration<br />
does not pursue new regulations<br />
that would limit earning<br />
opportunities for independent<br />
workers.<br />
“We are disappointed to see<br />
the administration withdraw<br />
a balanced rule that was<br />
well-grounded in the law and<br />
provided certainty to workers<br />
and businesses about worker<br />
classification.”<br />
The AFL-CIO, one of the country’s<br />
largest unions, praised the move.<br />
Gig workers are independent<br />
contractors who perform ondemand<br />
services, including driving,<br />
delivering groceries or providing<br />
childcare.<br />
The rule by former President<br />
Donald Trump’s administration,<br />
finalised in early January before<br />
he left office on January 20,<br />
would have hampered workers’<br />
ability to earn a minimum wage<br />
and overtime compensation –<br />
protections offered under the Fair<br />
Labor Standards Act (FLSA).<br />
It was supposed to take effect<br />
in March, but did not because it<br />
was being reviewed by the Labor<br />
Department under President Joe<br />
Biden.<br />
The FLSA includes provisions that<br />
require covered employers to pay<br />
employees at least the federal<br />
minimum wage for every hour they<br />
work and overtime compensation<br />
at not less than 1.5 times their<br />
regular rate of pay for every hour<br />
they work over 40 in a work week.<br />
FLSA protections do not apply to<br />
independent contractors.<br />
www.drivenow-magazine.com.au<br />
<strong>May</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />
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