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Uber loses challenge to California gig work law in United States appeals court

A U.S. appeals court on Monday rejected a bid by Uber and subsidiary Postmates to restore an obstacle to a California law that could require the business to deal with chauffeurs as staff members instead of independent specialists who are generally less costly.

An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a lower court judgment that stated Uber failed to reveal that the 2020 state law known as AB5 unjustly singled out app-based transportation companies while exempting other industries.

The appeals court in its ruling said there are possible reasons for treating transportation and delivery referral business differently from other types of recommendation companies.

The California legislature viewed transportation and shipment business as the most significant wrongdoers of the issue it sought to deal with-- worker misclassification, Circuit Judge Jacqueline Nguyen composed for the court.

Uber and an agent for the California attorney general's workplace did not instantly react to ask for remark.

Workers are entitled to the minimum wage, overtime pay, repayments for costs and other defenses that are not reached independent specialists. Uber, Postmates and comparable services normally treat workers as specialists in order to control expenses.

AB5 raised the bar for proving that workers are really independent contractors, needing a company to show that workers are not under its direct control or participated in its usual course of business and run their own independent companies.

(source: Reuters)