[cortesoft]

I do feel that driver's being able to work for multiple ride sharing companies at the same time does make it a bit different from a normal job. A majority of drivers have both Lyft and uber enabled at the same time.... so are they employees of both? How should benefits be calculated?

If I am an employee of a company, they are probably not going to let me work for a competitor while I am on the clock with them.

[dragonwriter]

> A majority of drivers have both Lyft and uber enabled at the same time.... so are they employees of both?

Having the app enabled is being on-call for potential assignments, not actually working. In my youngest years, I did that for multiple temp agencies at the same time a lot. Are they employees of both? Sure. Multiple W-2 employers is not that uncommon for people doing temp work.

> How should benefits be calculated?

In most cases, they will probably work little enough for each as to not reach mandatory benefit eligibility under most employer mandates.

> If I am an employee of a company, they are probably not going to let me work for a competitor while I am on the clock with them.

If you are an employee of a company giving on-demand assignments, they probably aren't going to consider you on the clock merely because you have indicated you are available to take an assignment if it becomes available.

If there are minimum paid shift rules in play, they may consider you on the clock and demand exclusivity for the paid period once you accept a job, even if there is a lull between assignments, though.

[dnautics]

"Multiple W-2 employers is not that uncommon for people doing temp work."

But not simultaneously. Once I went to a neghborhod where I knew I would not get any Lyft rides (stodgy white folk in suburban San Diego) and took Uber rides specifically to nail bonuses on both platforms.

[fmajid]

They are not paid by either Uber or Lyft when they are waiting for a ride, so no, it's not simultaneous.

[dnautics]

Not currently, because they are contractors. Who can say under the new law?

[dragonwriter]

The new law enshrines the existing case-law test into statute, so if they are properly categorized as contractors under existing state law, then they are also properly categorized as contractors under the new law.

That said, if they were on on-demand W-2 temporary workers instead of contractors, then they’d probably be treated exactly like all such workers (who often are signed up with multiple agencies to receive assignments) are by their employers and not be paid when they were merely willing to receive assignments but only after they had been offered and accepted and were actually working on a particular assignment.

[compiler-guy]

This is somewhat true for higher level jobs, but once you hit retail, and blue collar jobs generally, it stops being true.

McDonalds doesn't care if I also work at Burger King. Target doesn't care if I also work at WalMart. A plumber is generally fine if their assistant also works for another one.

All of this is subject to still doing the first job satisfactorially, of course.

[Frondo]

Funnily enough, the fast food industry is rife with non-competes:

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/fast-food-non-compete-agree...

"Amazingly, Healey’s office suggests that 80 percent of fast food workers are locked into these types of agreements."

Wonder why. (Hint: it keeps wages low and workers tied to their places of employ.)

[spookthesunset]

You aren’t “clocked in” in to Target, McDonald’s and Walmart at the same time though. I imagine many of these drivers are marked “available” on lyft, Uber and probably some delivery stuff all at once.

I’ve always wondered what would happen if legislation required them all to open Go their API’s so drivers could use some “app to rule them all” that talks to lyft, Uber and more and helps them choose the best assignments....

[rectang]

At the moment, rideshare drivers don't get paid for being available, so the analogy to being "clocked in" at a regular job falls down.

This is how the rideshare companies claim an absurdly high hourly rate for driving — you only get that rate while actually giving rides and it is generally infeasible to be giving rides all the time. The effective hourly rate is much lower.