App-based “gig work” has been around for more than a decade, yet the laws around how companies should treat the people who do that work are still inconsistent — or nonexistent.
That is starting to change, though, and 2022 could be a defining year in the march toward equitable treatment of workers who deliver food, give rides and perform other tasks for companies like Uber Technologies Inc. UBER, +0.47% — which launched in 2009 — DoorDash Inc. DASH, +1.51% and Lyft Inc. LYFT, +0.58%. After California tried to set a precedent that would require companies to classify gig workers as employees, the companies fought back with Proposition 22, a big-money ballot measure that carved out exceptions for gig companies. The measure was approved by voters in 2020, but eventually was ruled unconstitutional.
That fight in California continues, while several more battles are brewing. Gig companies are trying to pass laws similar to Prop. 22 in other U.S. states, while other countries consider new rules on worker classification. There are also new regulations and court cases that could be transformative, including those addressing how much companies are telling workers they can earn, and companies’ level of transparency on delivery fees and tips.
Veena Dubal, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law who studies the gig economy and has sided with gig workers, said “efforts that have been going on for a very long time [could] finally come to a head in 2022.”
The regulatory and political...
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