The US Senate is considering legislation to re-qualify all VTC drivers as employees. Uber and Lyft are heckled on Wall Street. The "disruption" carried by the new economy must not dynamize labor law.
Is this the end of the "model" Uber? US senators are considering a bill to re-qualify all VTC drivers as employees.
We are waiting for an imminent decision of the California Senate, but if this law passes, it is the bankruptcy of Uber.
Because these Uber, Lyft or Deliveroo type service platforms do not employ employees but self-employed or self-employed. Which means less social benefit, no vacation, no unemployment, no medical leave and no union.
In France, we saw how the leader of the dispute at Deliveroo had his contract terminated. Even though, officially, it has nothing to do with the fact that he was at the forefront of the protest this summer.
With this model, there are fewer benefits for workers and fewer costs for the company. The state of California estimates that it loses more than six billion euros in taxes each year.
This Internet revolution from California has two faces.
A very positive first face, that of technology. We are all connected and that's fine.
And another face, less gleaming this one, which rests on the least social saying.
This bill to requalify all drivers of VTC in employee has chances to pass? And with what consequence on France?
Every country has its social laws. In France, there is a charter of good conduct but which is considered insufficient.
But the Uber model is fragile. Moreover, the justice requalifies the contracts of work of driver in employee because there is what one calls a bond of subordination. It's Uber the boss, Uber who sets the prices and Uber who can disconnect you or punish you. The employment relationship is not balanced.
This is a fundamental question, are we not creating a new status of "underemployed"? This debate is being invited to the heart of the presidential campaign in the United States and could well bounce back in France.