[ubernostrum]

Generally, distinctions of "employee" versus "contractor" come down to things like the level of control exercised over a person's activities, when and how they perform those activities, etc. It appears California found that those factors tipped more to the "employee" side.

And it may well be that if taxi drivers sued at least some of them would also be ruled employees. Until then all we can say with certainty is that taxi companies claim their drivers are contractors.