On March 13, the California Court of Appeal mostly upheld Proposition 22, which authorized rideshare and delivery network platforms, such as Uber and Postmates, to classify their workers as independent contractors instead of employees.
On March 17, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that these platforms should be given the opportunity to prove they were unconstitutionally excluded from exemptions to California’s independent contractor statute, commonly called Assembly Bill 5.
On March 24, the California Court of Appeal ruled that an Uber driver who claimed he had been misclassified as an independent contractor had to arbitrate his individual Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) claim against the company, but also that he did not thereby lose the right to represent other “aggrieved employees” in court following his arbitration.
Proposition 22 created a new kind of independent contractor under California law, the app-based driver. It gives drivers some of the rights of employees, such as minimum hourly pay and the right to reimbursement of some expenses. The Service Employees International Union and others challenged the law. In August 2021, a state trial court invalidated Prop. 22.
In Castellanos v. State of California, a split three-justice panel of the California Court of Appeal mostly reversed the trial court’s order. The two-justice majority rejected the claim that Prop. 22 interferes with the Legislature’s authority over...
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