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.
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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.
