Category Archives: Lyft

Uber and Lyft agree to minimum pay and benefits for Massachusetts drivers

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Ride-share companies sign off on $175m settlement that will give workers paid sick leave and other protections

Uber and Lyft drivers will be guaranteed among the highest wages in the US for ride-share workers under a historic deal agreed with Massachusetts prosecutors.

Andrea Campbell, the state’s attorney general, and the two companies agreed to a $175m settlement Thursday evening that requires a minimum pay floor of $32.50 per hour, and introduces a slew of other benefits and protections that drivers didn’t already have.

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Lyft CEO says ‘My bad’ after earnings typo sends stock up 60%

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The company had predicted it would grow by 5% in 2024, but later said that the real increase would be a factor of 10 lower

Lyft beat estimates for fourth-quarter profits on Tuesday as the ride-share platform reaps the benefits of growth in rides to stadiums and airports as well as heavy cost-cutting.

Company shares surged more than 60% in extended trading but erased most of those gains after Lyft’s chief financial officer corrected a major mistake in the earnings report. The company had predicted it would grow by 500 basis points (5%) in 2024, but later said that the real increase would be a factor of 10 lower – 50 basis points (0.5%). In 2023, the stock gained about 36%.

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New Lyft CEO David Risher announces plans to lay off hundreds of workers

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Employees were informed via email that a ‘significant’ number would lose their jobs to cut costs and bring fares in line with Uber

The ride-hailing service Lyft is preparing to lay off hundreds of employees just days after its new CEO, David Risher, began steering the company with an eye toward driving down costs to help bring its fares more in line with its biggest rival, Uber.

Risher, a former Amazon executive, informed Lyft’s workforce of more than 4,000 employees in an email posted online on Friday that a “significant” number of them will lose their jobs. The message came at the end of his first week as Lyft’s CEO.

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Blow to Uber as top Massachusetts court blocks ballot question

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Justices reject planned ballot measure, citing proposal limiting companies’ liability for accidents

Massachusetts’ top court on Tuesday blocked an effort to ask voters whether app-based ride-share and delivery drivers should be treated as independent contractors rather than employees, in a setback for companies such as Uber and Lyft.

The unanimous decision by the Massachusetts supreme judicial court marked a victory for labor activists who sued and argued the ballot measure proposal contained loopholes that would create a sub-minimum wage for drivers for the companies.

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At least 50 US gig workers murdered or killed since 2017 – study

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Activists say companies like Lyft and Uber ‘try to protect their bottom line by offloading risk’ on to workers

On a Sunday afternoon in August 2021, the Lyft driver Isabella Lewis was shot in the head by a passenger she had just picked up and left for dead as the man sped off in what appeared to be a fatal carjacking.

Lyft released a statement to the press at the time saying it was “heartbroken by this incident” – but Allyssa Lewis, Isabella’s sister, said her family had never received direct communication from the company, nor any financial compensation.

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‘It’s not worth it’: rising gas prices force drivers to work for less than minimum wage

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Drivers already hit by low wages and poor working conditions are spending more time driving to keep their wages the same

By Tuesday afternoon, Lyft driver Elida Zabaleta had earned $100 in the five hours she spent ferrying passengers across the city of San Jose. With gas prices in California surging, she’d have to use more than half of that to cover fuel for the day, leaving her with just $45.

The rising cost of gas has made a difficult job all the more difficult, Zabaleta said, forcing her to spend more time behind the wheel to earn enough to afford living in one of the country’s most expensive cities.

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‘It’s a fraught moment’: Omicron puts brakes on US return-to-office plans

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Employers are pausing efforts to call remote workers back in amid a renewed push for strikes and unionization

Large US companies are now pulling back on plans to return to in-person work in light of the Omicron variant’s rapid spread across America.

Employers planning to call remote workers back into the office in the new year are now pausing those efforts, and they are wary of setting new return dates only to push them back once again in the face of continued uncertainty and risks from the pandemic.

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Lyft admits it recorded 4,000 sexual assault claims in long-awaited report

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Company reveals figures, promised in 2019, as ride-hailing companies face growing safety scrutiny

The ride-hailing app Lyft received more than 4,000 reports of sexual assaults during rides from 2017 to 2019, the company revealed in a new report, including 1,800 reports in 2019 alone.

Lyft revealed the numbers on Thursday, after having pledged in 2019 to do so. In its report, the company said the number of sexual assault reports collected through its app had risen from 1,096 in 2017 to 1,255 in 2018 and 1,807 in 2019.

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Blow for Uber as judge finds California’s gig-worker law unconstitutional

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  • Judge sides with drivers in lawsuit brought over Prop 22
  • Uber criticizes decision and says it plans to appeal

A judge on Friday struck down a California ballot measure that exempted Uber and other app-based ride-hailing and delivery services from a state law requiring drivers to be classified as employees eligible for benefits and job protections.

Related: One airport, 1,300 snakes: San Francisco helps to save endangered species

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Uber and Lyft must classify drivers as employees, judge rules, in blow to gig economy

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Preliminary injunction in California follows state’s lawsuit against companies over new labor law

A California judge has issued a preliminary injunction that would block Uber and Lyft from classifying their drivers as independent contractors rather than employees.

The move on Monday came in response to a May lawsuit filed by the state of California against the companies, which alleged they are misclassifying their drivers under the state’s new labor law.

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Dancers, writers, caddies: the gig workers who could benefit from California’s historic bill

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Uber and Lyft drivers aren’t the only ones getting protections – but journalists and musicians have raised concern

Groundbreaking legislation passed by California lawmakers on Wednesday has been lauded for its potential to transform the way tech companies such as Uber and Lyft treat their drivers – but those aren’t the only workers who stand to benefit.

The bill, known as AB5, will go into effect in January 2020. It sets a three-part standard for determining whether workers are properly classified as independent contractors, requiring that (a) they are free from the company’s control, (b) they are doing work that isn’t central to the company’s business and (c) they have an independent business in that industry.

This means a hugely diverse range of professions – from cable installers to exotic dancers to writers – will be affected by the bill.

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California passes landmark gig economy workers’ rights bill

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Law would make it more difficult for firms such as Uber to deny workers are employees

Lawmakers in California have passed a landmark bill that would make it much more difficult for companies such as Uber and Lyft to classify workers as independent contractors rather than employees.

The bill, which paves the way for workers in the so-called gig economy to get holiday and sick pay, has garnered attention across the US and beyond, largely owing to the size of California’s workforce. Several Democratic presidential candidates have supported the measure, including the US senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Kamala Harris of California.

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Uber, Lyft Driver Settlements Signal Gig Economy Victories Ahead

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With judges poised Thursday to consider settlements that will leave Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. drivers as independent contractors, two of the biggest names in the on-demand economy will avoid policy changes that would force them to rethink their business models. Uber and Lyft can also keep using a play borrowed from the traditional economy by requiring drivers to take disputes to private arbitration rather than court.