ClimateWire | James Jordan can work in almost every job in California, and by the company rules, the company’s rules were protected by the main rules that require employees to provide high -quality masks to prevent forest fires.
But James Jordan is a Uber driver.
In other words, he is a contractor, not an employee for billions of dollars of technology, and is not protected by California’s first national regulations on workers’ safety related to forest fires.
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Companies such as Uber and Lyft are now part of the US disaster response. Both apps provided Los Angeles residents with free wildfires with a large area of the city with free ride on the shelter. This is a service provided before hurricane and other disasters nationwide.
However, the driver who is harming often has little equipment or training to protect themselves or riders from extreme weather.
Last year, the California voting initiative, which was supported by the Supreme Court, weakened the rights of the workers. Results: Uber and Lyft are exempt from protection of the main forest fires of workers. The company does not need to provide the driver with the sick when wearing sickness due to forest fire smoke inhalation. The driver can also claim workers’ compensation if the lungs are harmlessly harmful.
Jordan recently extended the Los Angeles County on Saturday afternoon, “We can’t avoid this danger to help their brands and provide services to the community, but we cannot avoid this danger, but we can avoid this danger We can’t avoid this danger, but we can’t avoid this danger, but we cannot avoid this danger, but we cannot avoid this danger, but we can avoid this danger “But we do not get something that can take risks.” Healthy air quality warning I urged people to stay as much as possible.
Uber and LYFT said that each driver provided about 10,000 rides on the shelter in the first week after the forest fire began. The spokesman responded to the question of what Uber was doing to protect the driver, “The best way to talk with the driver, courier and merchants should find the best way.”
Lyft did not respond to the request.
The two companies said on the website that the driver could not enter the active fire evacuation zone, but he said nothing about the risk of forest fire smoke pollution. I have reached more than 13 times A safe limit of EPA’s daily average exposure.
LYFT’s web page Disaster relief access programExplaining the policies related to the evacuation zone to say to the rider that “the driver’s safety priority is determined,” and warns that the arrival time can be longer than expected.
This page is to the driver, “I instruct the driver to use the best judgment when evaluating the road conditions and to share the phone location with the loved one. So, “I know where you are and what you can follow in real time.”
This page does not provide information about what you need to do when you experience a way that the driver can protect herself, a shortage of breathing or other acting exposure symptoms.
It is a concern for Jordan, whose eyes and throats are stabbed this month. He said he felt anxious when a rider, who had a severe breath, entered the back seat.
“One man was convinced that I had asthma. Jordan said.
California Cruise
If Jordan is not a Uber driver, he may have been trained on how to get symptoms of acting exposure and how to receive medical treatment.
California was established in 2019 Breakthrough Limit exposure to workers’ forest fires. This rule should provide N95 respiratory tracts to workers when the employer reaches 151. Smoke contamination can extend 50 miles from the flame. This rule also requires employees to discover the importance of use of smoke inhalation and respiratory to surgical masks, which do not block acting.
The California Industrial Relations Department has received more than 50 complaints about violating this rule during the first week of the fire.
However, protection does not apply to contractors such as Jordan and other performers. The audit of the initiative, which is a voting initiative supported by a technology company, including UBER and LYFT, promised to raise the wages of workers in exchange for legally classified as an independent contractor.
This voting initiative also excludes benefits such as unemployment and worker compensation, except for contractors, in protection of other workers, including the minimum wage and overtime requirements.
Many workers argued that the benefits promised by the voting initiative organizers were not realized. but Execution of the law has been proven to be complicated. The state relations department said that the jurisdiction to resolve labor disputes will be expanded to employees, not performers.
“If you are a grocery store who collects the cart outside, the employer must provide a respirator for the smoke and develop the COPD from the on -site exposure. Anastasia Christman, a senior policy analyst of National EMPLOYMENT LAW Project, mentioned chronic lung disease. “But none of them are independent contractors, so it is not applied to Instacart workers or Uber drivers who can frequently visit the same grocery store.”
Los Angeles Forest Fire is only an example of extreme weather events that threaten performance workers.
In the ‘wire’ of climate change
In September 2021, the remnants of Hurricane Ida were recorded in New York City, overwhelming the city’s excellent system and distance, subway tunnel and basement.
Thousands of food delivery workers were trapped in the flood and damaged electric bicycles.
Ligia Gualpa, a co -founder of Los Deliveristas Unidos, a group that helps to organize app -based delivery workers in New York City, said that many people should pay repair costs because they were contractors.
In 2023, New York City delivery workers were often exposed to smoke from Canadian forest fires without masks or training, Guallpa said.
Guallpa said, “These workers are people who are drunk or flooded because they are at the forefront of climate change because their rectum is on the street.
Jordan, who returned to Los Angeles, said he had to do more to achieve his goals because of the fire. He has fewer riders than usual, many people are traveling in a shorter trip, and they are earning less money, he said. He said he worked longer (sometimes 12 hours) to earn the same amount as he used for about $ 200 for eight hours.
He is worried about acting and ash damage his car, which flashes a “check engine” warning, especially when the pollution becomes thick.
He tries to protect him by raising the window and wearing a surgical mask. He knows that they do not protect, but he has.
He hopes that Uber communicates with the driver. He wants risk benefits or better masks or “thank you for brave conditions and helping the community.”
Jordan said, “This type of message did not hear anything from them. “[We] Men eventually do it because they expect money to have humanity because they expect to have humanity. ”
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