Uber, Lyft drivers to remain contractors after California Supreme Court upholds Prop. 22 NBC Bay Area [Video]

The state Supreme Court unanimously upheld a voter-approved law that allows gig companies to classify their drivers as independent contractors.

The decision is a big win for ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft.

Proposition 22 let companies operate the way they always have treating drivers as independent contractors rather than employees.

“This proposition has been in effect since it passed in 2020, so it’s not going to dramatically change what the workers have been living with,” said David Levine, a professor of law at the University of California College of Law San Francisco.

Levine said it has been a long road for Proposition 22.

“They had drivers who said we don’t want to be classified as independent contractors in their perception,” Levine said. “It harms them because they don’t have access to a number of benefits that an employee has, and in this particular case the issue was access to …