After retiring from a long career in construction, John Pereira wanted to enjoy the benefits of retirement without too much financial stress. He took to driving passengers using the rideshare app Lyft, a job he says gives him the flexibility of a retired lifestyle while helping to pay the bills.
“I am my own boss,” he said. “When I feel like going, I go.”
Uber and Lyft, the two largest rideshare companies in the U.S., currently classify their drivers as independent contractors, rather than as employees. This distinction allows workers to create their own hours but doesn’t guarantee them minimum wage, overtime, earned sick time and other benefits.
As jobless benefit ends, Massachusetts recipients worry about their next steps
By Nick Stoico Globe Correspondent,Updated December 26, 2020, 5:52 p.m.
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Since losing her job in March, the few hundred dollars Amber Duarte receives weekly through the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program has been about the only income she can count on to support herself and her six children.
That was until Saturday, when the program hit its Dec. 26 endpoint with no law on the books to keep it running as President Trump refuses to sign Congressâs $900 billion pandemic relief bill.
The lapse in benefits affects millions of Americans, and hundreds of thousands in Massachusetts. More than 370,000 pandemic unemployment assistance
Gig workers deserve employment protections
The misclassification of employees as independent contractors predates the emergence of the gig economy and has been a method of skirting the cost of standard worker protections.
By Mark ErlichUpdated December 18, 2020, 11:54 a.m.
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Gig workers are still a small fraction of the total workforce, but the extension of independent contracting could shred decades of employment protections for future generations of workers.Michael Dwyer/Associated Press
and delivery drivers from a 2019 law, Assembly Bill 5, which brings Californiaâs gig economy into compliance with conventional employment laws.
The law codified a 2018 California Supreme Court ruling that established the âABC testâ as the determinant of employment status. The test presumes a worker is an employee unless three clear and simple criteria are met: the individual is free from the hiring companyâs direction and control; performs work that falls o
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