Maddy Joseph is a student at Harvard Law School.
In New York City, more people are taking Uber than traditional yellow cabs, the New York Times reports. Uber’s growth has been fueled by new riders in the outer boroughs; a similar trend–new customers outside the city center–is also taking hold in other cities.
Meanwhile, the UK, whose capital city recently declined to renew Uber’s license, is considering new protections for gig workers. At a parliamentary hearing this week, an Uber representative told policymakers that making the company classify its workers as employees would spur changes to the company’s labor model and would significantly raise its costs. Also earlier this week, a detailed Bloomberg story outlined the five ongoing criminal investigations against Uber, including two investigations that had previously been unreported. Based on interviews with current and former employees, Bloomberg describes Uber’s legal culture–its legal department’s “mandate” was to “test” the boundaries of the law–and the controversial “arsenal” of programs for which the company is under investigation.
A New York Times analysis talks to experts and examines past NLRB actions relevant to whether the NFL players’ protests are concerted activity protected under federal labor law. Read more about the question from Benjamin Sachs on this blog here.
Finally, California Governor Jerry Brown signed several worker-related measures yesterday, including a law requiring smaller employers to provide 12 weeks of parental leave and a ban on employers’ asking for the salary history of prospective workers, a move designed to help improve the gender pay gap.
Daily News & Commentary
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September 12
Zohran Mamdani calls on FIFA to end dynamic pricing for the World Cup; the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement opens a probe into Scale AI’s labor practices; and union members organize immigration defense trainings.
September 11
California rideshare deal advances; Boeing reaches tentative agreement with union; FTC scrutinizes healthcare noncompetes.
September 10
A federal judge denies a motion by the Trump Administration to dismiss a lawsuit led by the American Federation of Government Employees against President Trump for his mass layoffs of federal workers; the Supreme Court grants a stay on a federal district court order that originally barred ICE agents from questioning and detaining individuals based on their presence at a particular location, the type of work they do, their race or ethnicity, and their accent while speaking English or Spanish; and a hospital seeks to limit OSHA's ability to cite employers for failing to halt workplace violence without a specific regulation in place.
September 9
Ninth Circuit revives Trader Joe’s lawsuit against employee union; new bill aims to make striking workers eligible for benefits; university lecturer who praised Hitler gets another chance at First Amendment claims.
September 8
DC Circuit to rule on deference to NLRB, more vaccine exemption cases, Senate considers ban on forced arbitration for age discrimination claims.
September 7
Another weak jobs report, the Trump Administration's refusal to arbitrate with federal workers, and a district court judge's order on the constitutionality of the Laken-Riley Act.