Seattle City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed what is being called a “first-in-the-nation” policy to create protections for gig workers who deliver meals, groceries and packages, and some on-demand service providers.
The policy would:
The policy, which has been dubbed PayUp, excludes Seattle-based Rover, a pet-sitting and walking service, and freelance-labor app TaskRabbit. The council voted to continue working on policies to address those services.
The measure now goes to Mayor Bruce Harrell for approval.
Before the vote, council member Lisa Herbold, one of the sponsors of the policy, said that the gig-economy, app-based jobs were often filled by members of the BIPOC community and immigrants who are exploited by the roles. An estimated 40,000 people perform gig-worker jobs in Seattle, she said.
“Companies can get away with offering poor quality, unsafe jobs where workers have virtually zero legal protections on the job because for so many workers, there is simply no alternative,” Herbold said. “Far from offering economic opportunity, this business model deepens the desperation of underpaid Black, Latinx and other workers of color who have been...
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