20 CityAndStateNY.com
February 14, 2022
Will gig workers’ rights arrive in Albany this year? Experts weigh in after another round of false starts last year. By Annie McDonough
The Deliveristas recently won more rights in New York City. Now it’s up to state lawmakers to implement their own changes.
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HE FIGHT TO secure gig workers more employment rights and protections has been one of Albany’s more intractable policy issues for several years now. Powerful and deep-pocketed gig companies like Uber and DoorDash have long resisted efforts to reclassify gig workers from independent contractors to employees – securing for them all the rights that employees everywhere are entitled to – as legislators tried to do in California. Meanwhile, labor advocates have shut down attempted compromise bills that would grant gig workers some new rights but withhold others, calling them giveaways to companies. The New York City Council has had more success in advancing new protections for some gig workers, thanks in large part to advocacy from the workers themselves. Organizing by Los Deliveristas Unidos, a grassroots group of largely immigrant food delivery workers, led to those workers securing protections at the city level, including access to bathrooms and minimum pay levels. With the state legislative session in full swing, City & State reached out to experts in labor law and gig work to see how legislators might approach the contested issue this year. Four experts responded, including Maria Figueroa, dean of the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies at SUNY Empire State; Patricia Campos-Medina, executive director for the Worker Institute at ILR Cornell University; Andrew Wolf, a
lecturer at CUNY; and Eli Dvorkin, editorial and policy director at the Center for an Urban Future. These responses have been edited for length and clarity. Is there still an avenue for New York to pursue reclassifying gig workers as employees, rather than independent contractors? ANDREW WOLF: New York has a clear path to classifying gig workers as employees. In fact, the state Department of Labor has already ruled that Uber and Lyft drivers are employees under the state’s unemployment insurance system, despite the companies fighting against it. The pandemic showed the need to classify gig workers as employees as their contractor status undermined workers’ ability to quickly access social assistance and health and safety protections. PATRICIA CAMPOS-MEDINA: As of right now, it is unclear if there is a credible legislative effort to reclassify workers as employees rather than independent contractors. However, that does not mean that these issues are not a concern for workers, their advocates and for labor unions. App companies determine how often you work, the type of job you take and the wages for your work. Determining who is the actual boss in this employment relationship is an essential component of determining who is
