New York’s City Council, in December, voted to approve a duo of bills meant to establish “just cause” protections for for-hire drivers and food delivery workers. Companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Grubhub will be prohibited from locking workers out of their accounts, unless for just cause or “bona fide economic reasons,” according to the legislation, which was introduced by Council members Shekar Krishnan of Queens and Justin Brannan of Brooklyn.
Krishnan, who introduced the driver bill last year, rallied with members of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance outside of City Hall, ahead of the vote.
Prior to the bills passing, some industry advocates voiced substantial concerns. The Independent Drivers Guild (IDG) warned that, “due to unintended consequences, the latest version of the bill… would create a nightmare for rideshare drivers instead of protecting them.”
IDG president, Brendan Sexton, went on to say: “Intro 276-A… replaces a system that works with one that will put drivers out of work for good. It’s throwing away a proven, worker-friendly system that drivers and organized labor fought for – and replacing it with a nightmare that jeopardizes their entire careers. [It will] scrap the current, proven union-won process that the city’s rideshare drivers use to appeal if a rideshare app deactivates their account…. [replacing] it with a government system run by a city agency that is not equipped to handle the caseload. Profit-driven rideshare app companies plan to bypass it and instead pursue the cheap and easy option: revoking drivers’ TLC licenses. License revocations would bring a permanent end to a driver’s career, not just with one app company but with any taxi, livery or for-hire vehicle car service.”
