A California appeals court overturned most of a ruling invalidating Proposition 22, the 2020 voter-approved sharing economy state law that allows giant trucking and delivery companies to classify their workers as independent contractors instead of of employees.
The 1st District Court of Appeals ruled that Proposition 22 should stand, disagreeing with a 2021 ruling that found central provisions of the law conflicted with the state Constitution, rendering the law unenforceable. and discarded it entirely.
However, the appeals court struck down a provision in the law that restricted certain legislative amendments.
The court found that the ballot measure had incorrectly defined what constitutes an amendment, in violation of the state constitution’s principles of separation of powers. The court struck down provisions of Proposition 22 that restrict the Legislature from making future amendments to the law.
He judgment of first instance, made by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch in August 2021, found that the law conflicts with the state Constitution by restricting the Legislature’s ability to regulate workers’ compensation rules. The ruling also argues that Proposition 22 violates a constitutional provision that requires initiatives to be limited to a “single issue.”
Proposition 22 has remained in effect through the appeals process.
The Protect App-based Drivers & Services coalition, which backed Proposition 22, hailed the ruling as a “historic victory for the nearly 1.4 million drivers who depend on the independence and flexibility of app-based work for income and the integrity of the California initiative system”.
“The Court of Appeal upheld the fundamental policy behind the measure,” Molly Weedn, a spokeswoman for the coalition, said in an email.
A three-judge panel in San Francisco heard the case in December. During the hearing, Judge Tracie L. Brown challenged the statute’s provision limiting legislative amendments on collective bargaining as falling outside the scope of Proposition 22’s stated purpose and raised the hypothetical idea of striking down one provision instead of all of it. the law.
Proposition 22 went into effect in early 2021. Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and other app-based companies spent more than $200 million promoting the ballot initiative to Californians as a boon to both workers and citizens. customers.
For hundreds of thousands of drivers, Proposition 22 preserved the flexible hours associated with remaining an independent contractor, but removed the protections afforded by a 2019 law, AB 5, which requires temporary workers in many industries to be classified as employees with stronger benefits, such as a minimum wage, hours extras and workers compensation in case of injury
