A new California law that makes it harder to treat workers as independent contractors violates workers' constitutional rights and unfairly discriminates against app-based services and those who find work through them, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by Uber, Postmates and two gig economy workers.
The suit, which names the state of California and Attorney General Xavier Becerra as defendants, is part of the on-demand industry's multimillion-dollar campaign to fight Assembly Bill 5. The companies also submitted a ballot initiative in October.
In the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court, the plaintiffs call AB 5, which was signed into law in September and takes effect Jan. 1, an "irrational and unconstitutional statute designed to target and stifle workers and companies in the on-demand economy" and accuse its author, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, of being overtly hostile to the gig companies.
"Rather than embrace how the on-demand economy has empowered workers, benefited consumers, and fueled economic growth, some California legislators have irrationally attacked it," the suit reads.
In a statement, Gonzalez said this was yet another move that showed Uber "will do anything to try to exempt themselves from state regulations that make us all safer and their driver employees self-sufficient."
"First, Uber sought not only an exemption from AB 5 but from all California labor laws," Gonzalez said. "Then, they said they wouldn't abide by AB 5 anyway. Then, they said AB 5 didn't apply to them because they weren't a transportation company. Then, they said they would create a ballot initiative to exempt themselves from AB 5. And now Uber is in court bizarrely trying to say AB 5 is unconstitutional."
The companies allege AB 5 violates several constitutional rights including the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment, the Ninth Amendment, and the contracts clause of Article I.
They also allege the law violates the equal protection clause, inalienable rights clause, due process clause, Baby Ninth Amendment, and contracts clause of the California Constitution. The companies are seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from the law as part of the suit.
