Mark Austin, an Uber and Lyft driver who earned $150 by early Wednesday morning through the ride-hailing apps, pleaded with state lawmakers outside the State House to not strip away workers' independence by classifying them as employees.
A retired chef, Austin said driving for the ride-hailing services is the "best job" he's ever had, as the Weymouth resident makes money based on "ingenuity, time and effort" while manipulating his own schedule six days each week.
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"My message is: Why fix what's not broken?" Austin said. "My opinion, if you change this, you'll break it and destroy all the good things that come from it."
Austin and other app-based drivers joined the latest push from the Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work -- funded by Uber, Lyft and Instacart -- to maintain their independent contractor status and reject labor unions' efforts to install employee protections. It's unclear if their advocacy could trigger another voter referendum.
The Supreme Judicial Court last summer tossed a planned ballot question around the employment status of app-based drivers. The court said the inclusion of a liability provision reflected "at least two substantively distinct policy decisions" in one question, putting the proposal at odds with a constitutional requirement that initiative petitions contain only related or mutually dependent subjects.
The coalition needs to keep its "options open" and "keep our eyes on" the possibility of filing a ballot question, said spokesman Conor Yunits. The deadline to place a possible ballot question into the mix is in early August. App-based drivers are ambivalent about whether a ballot question or legislation helps them reach their goal, Yunits indicated.
At the press conference, drivers broadly embraced a bill from state Rep. Mark Cusack that would preserve their ability to be independent contractors with a minimum hourly wage of $18 and benefits like paid family leave and health care stipends. They also support a bill from state Rep. Daniel Cahill to create a portable benefits framework that would allow drivers to purchase health insurance and replace lost income due to an illness or accident.
