Gig Workers’ Bill of Rights
This is a non-exhaustive and evolving document created with the input of hundreds of gig workers based on their experiences and concerns. We are not addressing misclassification of gig workers as independent contractors in this document, even though it is directly related to workers missing out on vital worker protections. Rather, this document seeks to provide a baseline of worker rights that any person should enjoy while doing any sort of app based work. If you are a gig worker who would like to get involved and make your voice heard in this document, reach out to www.chicagogigalliance.org.
Terms:
“TNP” means Transportation Network Provider (Uber, Lyft, Via). This term does not apply to food delivery services per City of Chicago regulation.
“Platform” means the phone application (or app) through which service is provided.
“Customer/passenger” means a person receiving services through the app.
“Worker/driver” means the people providing transportation, delivery or other services through the app.
"Deactivation" means the blocking of a worker’s access to the platform, changing a worker’s status from eligible to provide services to ineligible, or other material restriction in access to the platform.
“Logged in” means available and accepting dispatches
Covered in this document are workers’:
Right to a Living Wage - Workers shall earn at least $20/hr after expenses.
Right to Safety on the Job - Gig companies shall require ID verification for all accounts, a matching form of payment, required entry of personal information for unaccompanied riders who are not the account holder and facial recognition for customers at the point of pick up.
Right to a Union - Workers shall not be prevented from organizing and forming a union to protect their interests.
Right to Flexibility- The company shall not interfere with workers’ ability to access and work on the app in order to avoid paying workers their minimum hourly wage.
Right to Guaranteed Minimum Hours - The company shall not prevent workers from reaching their desired amount of work hours per week.
TNP Driver Cap - Drivers (not cars) shall be capped at their current level after a moratorium period.
Freedom from Municipal Harassment - The City of Chicago shall provide reasonable access to free spaces for workers to pull over downtown and near food pickup hubs, and cease targeting drivers with administrative hearing tickets.
Freedom from Customer Harassment - Gig companies shall deactivate any account repeatedly reported for violating terms of service, or any passenger or customer account accused of assault, robbery or injury to a worker until an investigation is completed.
Right to Surge Pay - Any surge, prime-time or other fees related to high demand charged by gig companies to passengers or customer MUST be paid to the worker, and commission fees shall be capped at 20%
Right to Commercial Insurance Protection - Gig companies shall provide commercial insurance to their workers at no cost.
Right to a Living Wage: at least $20/hr + expenses Recent studies have shown that gig workers are making less than the state minimum wage after expenses, and we know that many are on government assistance for healthcare or food. Some rideshare drivers have become homeless and live out of their vehicles. This is the only industry which has seen workers consistently taking pay cuts year after year, despite the fact that business is booming. Workers should be making a minimum wage of at least $20/hr + expenses.
Currently, workers are only compensated for time spent with either a passenger in the vehicle, or dispatched on an order. This accounts for only a small portion of the time the worker spends logged in to the platform and does not include waiting time or the time from dispatch to pickup. Moving forward workers shall be compensated for all time logged in to the platform.
Right to Safety on the Job: With the carjacking epidemic reaching the highest numbers seen in decades and gig workers being killed at an alarming rate by app users, there needs to be stricter app security for users to prove their identity as well stricter policies for users who violate terms of service. Users must have a valid photo ID and a matching form of payment to open an account, and some method of verifying passenger identity should be implemented at the pickup location.
Users who are reported for violence or harassment of a worker will have their accounts deactivated. Passengers who are underage will no longer be permitted to open an account of their own. Minors may only be on platform if insurance umbrella policy changes to include coverage for minors. Otherwise, if an account is flagged for allowing an unaccompanied minor the account will be deactivated.
A worker safety council with worker representatives shall be implemented with the express purpose of addressing safety issues that are prevalent in the app based industries we represent.
In the absence of worker protection like Worker’s Compensation (which we are not currently eligible to receive due to our employment classification), workers who are injured, robbed, or otherwise assaulted while on the job shall have access to a worker fund dedicated to help with medical costs or vehicle recover/repairs/replacement.
Right to a Union: Workers shall not be prevented from organizing and forming a union to protect their interests.
Right to Flexibility and Guaranteed Minimum Hours: When faced with regulation, gig companies tend to push back on workers by limiting their hours on the app or taking away schedule flexibility. Gig workers shall maintain their ability to access the app at will and work for as many hours as legally permitted in their area.
TNP Driver Cap/Moratorium: We support a one year moratorium on TNP licensing while the City conducts our wage study and begins to implement regulation. After the moratorium, a driver cap shall be enacted to prevent the gig companies from unfairly deactivating seasoned gig workers and replacing them with new workers who are willing to work with reduced safety or pay standards. It will also help prevent worker oversaturation and traffic congestion.
Right to Surge Pay: Gig companies shall cap their commission at 20%, ensuring that the billing of customers and payment to drivers is fair, transparent and easily understood by all parties. No more creative accounting by gig companies to increase their take of the fare will be permitted. All fare breakdowns must be visible to both driver and passenger within the app. Additionally, surge pay charged to the passenger MUST be paid to the worker. Right now, the companies can, and do, create surges and charge passengers 2-3 times normal pricing and only pass a fraction of that money to the workers.
Right to Job Security: The City must oversee all driver deactivations and drivers shall have the right to dispute and appeal deactivations. This will protect veteran workers from being unfairly deactivated under a driver cap so gig companies cannot replace them with a driver who is paid less, as well as workers who have had unsubstantiated customer complaints of a serious enough nature to result in deactivation. A driver representative must be included in the review board. If accused by a passenger of driving while intoxicated, drivers will be deactivated for no more than 48 hours (unless proven guilty). Police stations or hospitals will be designated for drivers to immediately take a sobriety test. If the test is passed, the customer who made the report must pay for the testing. Customers who make multiple false claims shall be deactivated from the app.
Right to Freedom From Municipal Harassment: There are thousands of gig workers at any given time in the streets of Chicago delivering food and driving passengers, and they have been touted as essential frontline workers through the pandemic, and yet there are virtually no places to safely pull over to pick up or drop off anywhere in the city, let alone to use a restroom.
Workers are also targeted for “administrative hearing” tickets for some traffic violations, which don’t go on your driving record but result in higher fines. Gig workers pulling over to pick up food near the Kitchen United Mix on Sedgwick in River North are targeted with parking tickets on a completely empty street. A typical UberEats order pays the driver around $2.50 - $5.00 (before expenses) so paying a meter for each delivery will cancel out any earnings.
These are some of the most poorly paid and vulnerable workers in the city and they should not have to worry about being targeted with predatory ticket practices while working. We ask that there be designated, free spaces on every block downtown and several free spaces near any delivery pickup hub for rideshare and food delivery workers can pull over safely without having to worry that their days’ earnings will be nullified by an expensive ticket or parking fees.
Finally, gig workers are put in a very precarious situation by the deal the City currently has with TNP providers which allows workers to be deactivated for any unpaid city fines. This could include parking or moving violations, unpaid services such as water bills or even tickets relating to workers’ property (one driver was deactivated for not paying a ticket for an unkempt yard). This practice disproportionately affects POC and places an unfair burden on workers to pay bills and fines with no access to the platforms to make money and needs to end immediately. Right to Freedom From Customer Harassment: All too often when gig workers have issues with customers, they find that the gig companies do not seem interested in finding out what really happened. Many workers submit dashcam footage to verify their side of a customer dispute and find the company will not review it. Instead, they reward customers who make false reports against drivers by giving them free rides and free food, and the complaints collect in workers’ accounts until the company decides there are too many (there is no guidance or communication about what that number is) at which time the worker is deactivated with no due process.
Additionally, workers who are assaulted or injured by passengers can report those incidents to the police, but gig companies are notoriously slow to provide needed information for these investigations. The worker may never find out if the dangerous rider was removed from the app. No matter how grievous the assault, workers are simply told they will not be matched with that customer again. This is totally unacceptable. If a worker makes a claim that they were assaulted and have filed a police report, that passenger should be immediately removed from the platform pending investigation which should be acted on immediately by the company in question.
Right to Commercial Insurance Protection: Currently gig companies do not provide comprehensive commercial insurance which leaves workers exposed to legal repercussions or loss of property. Drivers also often find that their cars do not get repaired after an accident on the job because gig company insurance typically will only cover them if their personal insurance chooses to cover them, (they often don’t if they find out the vehicle is used for gig work). Some private insurance plans offer a rideshare insurance add-on, however for many that is an expense they cannot afford due to low wages. Universal commercial insurance would protect workers’ property as well as the passengers, and should also cover workers even if they do not have a passenger or order at the time of the incident.
Additionally, gig workers find they have to be the enforcer of gig company terms of service which can lead to altercations with passengers, and since there are no repercussions for passengers who consistently violate terms of service the workers are often unfairly punished for trying to follow terms of service if the customer complains. Some customers consistently send unaccompanied minors or attempt to bring small children in the vehicle with no safety seat and even if they are reported they do not lose access to the app.
Insurance must cover minors and a mandated number of wheelchair accessible and child car-seat vehicles with no more than $1,000 deductible. There will be a set number of child seat vehicles and these vehicles will be paid luxury vehicle rates. Passengers will need to select this vehicle if traveling with a child who must legally ride in a child seat. Violations of this rule will result in customer account deactivation.