SACRAMENTO, California — The California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 22, the 2020 ride-hail company-funded ballot initiative aimed at reclassifying gig workers.
Thursday’s ruling capped a yearslong battle between labor and the companies over the status of workers who are dispatched by apps to deliver food, buy groceries and transport customers. A 2018 Supreme Court ruling and a follow-up bill would have compelled the gig companies to treat those workers as employees. A collection of five firms then spent more than $200 million to escape that mandate by passing Prop 22 in one of the most expensive political campaigns in American history.
The ruling on Thursday now upholds the status quo of the gig economy in California.
As independent contractors, gig workers are not entitled to benefits like sick leave, overtime, and workers’ compensation. The SEIU union and four gig workers, ultimately, challenged Prop 22 based on its conflict with the legislature’s power to administer the latter. The law, which passed with 58 percent of the vote in 2020, would make gig workers ineligible for workers’ comp, which opponents of Prop 22 argued rendered the entire law unconstitutional.
Attorneys for the campaign behind Prop 22, a ride-hail company-backed coalition called Protect App-Based Drivers + Services, responded by saying the initiative process has power equal to the legislature, including augmenting workers’ comp statutes.
Protect App-Based Drivers + Services called Thursday’s decision a “historic ruling” that would protect a measure voters “overwhelmingly supported.”
