If Uber thinks this is bad news, just wait until everyone wakes up and starts treating them (including regulating them) like the taxi cab company they really are.
As a business in California, I no longer hire employees in California because the regulations are sickening. Business owners have no justice, they are guilty as charged by anyone providing contracting services and employees of that business. I have used Uber, these guys are true Independent Contractors, they work when they want, they use their own vehicle, etc – it’s always one person and one political persuasion that is only driven by political greed that is ruining it for everyone, including those who love being an Independent Contractor! This one political party is destroying the country.
I no longer hire employees in California because the regulations are sickening. Businesses have no justice, they are guilty as charged by anyone providing employees or contractors of that business. I use Uber on a regular basis, these guys Independent Contractors to the letter of the law as defined by the IRS, they work when they want, they use their own vehicle, etc – it’s always one person and one political idealogy that is only driven by pure greed that is ruining it for everyone, including those who love being an working for themselves by being an IC! One political party is destroying the country.
There are 3 levels of control that the IRS and others consider for determining the definition of employee vs independent contractor. Uber failed on 2 of the 3. Those three levels are: “behavioral control, financial control, and relationship.” Uber failed on behavioral and financial control.
If Workers Compensation costs are destroying a company’s profitability then they have a shitty business model. None of my clients like WC coverage and the affiliated costs, but ALL of the successful ones carry the coverage and they are making good money.
It is easy to complain about WC costs, but if you can’t pay WC and make a profit, you don’t have a viable business.
You have a very narrow point of view. I only stated that it eats into profits. It’s a cost at the end of the day and Uber would not be Uber if they have to carry the costs of employees from its inception. It’s not just them, many large corporations try to avoid workers comp for high risk job classes by labeling them as contractors-just look at FedEx. This goes back to the beginning of the wcomp plan. Money paid to wcomp is less money for profits, your argument is invalidated on simple math.
I have always said this, Uber may win against taxi regulation, but the I knew that with their level of control they were going to lose out to wcomp.
I don’t understand why point of view is narrow. Every expense not directly related to delivering a product or service eats away at profits. Wages are a cost, and they eat away at profit, but we decided that workers must be paid. With your logic and “simple math” corporations shouldn’t be paying wages as it takes away from profit.
My comment is correct, if you business model is destroyed by WC benefits, then you have a shitty business model.
All I am talking about is profits. Believe it or not, I don’t disagree with you regarding the business model concept, I use that explanation with my clients too. However, Uber is a startup and profits are what it needs in order to entice more investors. If it can’t provide returns, then it will fail to bring in more investors.
June 17, 2015 at 5:04 pm
Dennis says:
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Its the Principal’s Protective controversy all over again and misconstrued. If the person performing the work is basically on his own as to how his work is performed he is not an employee but rather an independent contrctor. If he follows explicit direction to perform his work he is an employee. The Uber driver might use systems and software supplied by Uber for him but they do not explicitly tell him where to go to pick up fares nor where to take the fares. That is not substantial control. The classic case reference is newspaper boys – employee or contractor? The courts held for them as independent contractors. the newsboys delivered newspapers supplied for them and they collected the payments from their customers but how those newspapers reached their customers was the discretion of the newsboys. Read the Uber case and substitute “newspaper delivery boys” everytime you see Uber and you’ll see that the frame of reference is the same. This should be overturned by SCOTUS.
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If Uber thinks this is bad news, just wait until everyone wakes up and starts treating them (including regulating them) like the taxi cab company they really are.
Don’t forget that they now qualify for the obamacare penalty too!
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I no longer hire employees in California because the regulations are sickening. Businesses have no justice, they are guilty as charged by anyone providing employees or contractors of that business. I use Uber on a regular basis, these guys Independent Contractors to the letter of the law as defined by the IRS, they work when they want, they use their own vehicle, etc – it’s always one person and one political idealogy that is only driven by pure greed that is ruining it for everyone, including those who love being an working for themselves by being an IC! One political party is destroying the country.
It’s hairy, I know. However, Uber exerts a lot of control and that’s the problem. A labor commission will always err on the side of the employees.
Specifically what kind of control do they exercise over them?
There are 3 levels of control that the IRS and others consider for determining the definition of employee vs independent contractor. Uber failed on 2 of the 3. Those three levels are: “behavioral control, financial control, and relationship.” Uber failed on behavioral and financial control.
Actually, I will agree with you on your point. This ruling does expose that Uber has a fragile business model.
Nothing destroys a company’s profitability more than worker’s compensation costs. Welcome to reality Uber.
If Workers Compensation costs are destroying a company’s profitability then they have a shitty business model. None of my clients like WC coverage and the affiliated costs, but ALL of the successful ones carry the coverage and they are making good money.
It is easy to complain about WC costs, but if you can’t pay WC and make a profit, you don’t have a viable business.
You have a very narrow point of view. I only stated that it eats into profits. It’s a cost at the end of the day and Uber would not be Uber if they have to carry the costs of employees from its inception. It’s not just them, many large corporations try to avoid workers comp for high risk job classes by labeling them as contractors-just look at FedEx. This goes back to the beginning of the wcomp plan. Money paid to wcomp is less money for profits, your argument is invalidated on simple math.
I have always said this, Uber may win against taxi regulation, but the I knew that with their level of control they were going to lose out to wcomp.
I don’t understand why point of view is narrow. Every expense not directly related to delivering a product or service eats away at profits. Wages are a cost, and they eat away at profit, but we decided that workers must be paid. With your logic and “simple math” corporations shouldn’t be paying wages as it takes away from profit.
My comment is correct, if you business model is destroyed by WC benefits, then you have a shitty business model.
All I am talking about is profits. Believe it or not, I don’t disagree with you regarding the business model concept, I use that explanation with my clients too. However, Uber is a startup and profits are what it needs in order to entice more investors. If it can’t provide returns, then it will fail to bring in more investors.
Its the Principal’s Protective controversy all over again and misconstrued. If the person performing the work is basically on his own as to how his work is performed he is not an employee but rather an independent contrctor. If he follows explicit direction to perform his work he is an employee. The Uber driver might use systems and software supplied by Uber for him but they do not explicitly tell him where to go to pick up fares nor where to take the fares. That is not substantial control. The classic case reference is newspaper boys – employee or contractor? The courts held for them as independent contractors. the newsboys delivered newspapers supplied for them and they collected the payments from their customers but how those newspapers reached their customers was the discretion of the newsboys. Read the Uber case and substitute “newspaper delivery boys” everytime you see Uber and you’ll see that the frame of reference is the same. This should be overturned by SCOTUS.