California challenges Uber and Lyft over driver status

California has filed suit against Lyft and Uber for their failure to reclassify their drivers as employees. A judge in San Francisco granted the state a preliminary injunction that banned the online ride hailing platforms from calling their drivers independent contractors. A Reuters report said the judge's ruling expressed the belief that the two companies would be found in violation of legislation passed at the end of 2019 banning the independent classification. At stake, say the companies, are their basic business models, but they argue that drivers equally as keen to be free of ties that employment brings. Labor activists have long warned that corporations would exploit workers with whom they had no formal contractual relationships. The gig economy has driven a great deal of growth in the New Economy, but the ruling in California could herald the beginning of an adjustment based on the experiences of the past few years.