A few months ago, the ongoing battle of California's Prop 22 was once again challenged in the California Supreme Court. After hearing both sides of the argument, California courts stated that they would come up with a decision within a few months.
Well, that time has come, and the courts have decided that everything will remain the same for California gig workers. Doordash, Uber, Grubhub and other gig workers will continue to be classified as independent contractors and will receive Prop 22 benefits just as they have since the inception of Prop 22 in 2020.
The court's decision was based on the challenge of Prop 22 being unconstitutional
Those that have followed the Prop 22 law from the beginning know that it has been challenged over and over ever since it was implemented back in 2020. Unfortunately for those that oppose Prop 22, nothing in court has ever seemed to work in their favor to overturn the law. With that said, they still have remained very aggressive, and this recent challenge brought on a new strategy.
Their challenge in this recent court case was to prove that Prop 22 was incompatible with California law, which gives the Legislature responsibility over a complete workers compensation program. With gig workers being classified as independent contractors instead of employees, dashers and other gig workers have been ineligible for workers comp benefits. The main argument from opponents of Prop 22 in this recent court battle was that Prop 22 is unconstitutional.
The California Supreme Court Prop 22 decision come as no surprise
Some California gig workers may have been a bit nervous about California taking away Prop 22 benefits, but to be honest, most gig workers knew that California would not just due away with Prop 22. Really sit back and think about it. If things went back to the way they were before Prop 22 existed, who in their right mind would do delivery work for these gig companies in California? Sure, most of the country does not have anything like Prop 22, but they also do not have the ridiculous expenses that those in California have.
Most gig workers do support Prop 22
Despite what many have been lead to believe, the majority of gig workers do support Prop 22. There is a reason that Prop 22 was written into law. Yes, the voters spoke, and Prop 22 went into effect. Speaking to most gig workers, they almost always support Prop 22 and the vast majority of them do not want to be employees of these gig companies. Basically, they like things just the way they are.
It seems like the media news outlets try to project that the majority of gig workers in California are against Prop 22. This is simply not the case. Most gig workers know that if they want a 9 to 5, even with similar courier type jobs, they can go out and get one. They do not want a 9 to 5 though, and this is the reason they do gig work.
Sure, the gig companies can be shady about their practices, such as Doordash implementing a tier system in many areas which forces dashers to do a certain number of calls to be able to work anytime they want. In my opinion, this should be what opponents of Prop 22 should be going after in the court room. Yes, Doordash is trying to make dashers as much as employees that they can without making them employees, and they are wrong for doing this, but having things the way they are is so much better than what opponents of Prop 22 are trying to do; which is trying to make gig workers actual employees.
This Prop 22 decision is not the end
Don't think for a moment that Prop 22 opponents are just going to give up. This will be an ongoing battle that will never end. There will eventually have to be some kind of negotiation where all parties are at least partially satisfied. I guarantee you that there will be more upcoming court cases in the next couple of years, and as gig workers all we can do is wait and see what happens. But, for now, we California gig workers will just continue to enjoy the Prop 22 benefits as we have become accustomed to. Thank goodness for that!
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