New York Fails to Deliver for Out-of-Work Uber and Lyft Drivers

By Yehudit Garmaise

    Although New York state had promised unemployment payments to Uber and Lyft during the COVID-19 pandemic, few unemployed app-based drivers have seen a penny.

   State officials had previously told the court that 4,520 outstanding claims of unemployment assistance to Uber and Lyft drivers would be paid by the end of the week of Dec. 14, 2020, however, yesterday, at least 497 members of the New York Taxi Worker Alliance filed documents in Brooklyn’s federal court yesterday saying that they have yet to receive anything.

     “Self-employed” workers, as for-hire drivers were initially classified, were already disadvantaged because the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program said that it would provide them with significantly less financial help than they would for than full-time employees.

    In fact, independent contractors, such as drivers for app-based companies, are not usually eligible for unemployment benefits at all, however, the difficulties of the COVID-19 are probably what influenced a judge to rule that drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft are, in fact, eligible for COVID-19 jobless benefits.

     “The reality is drivers should have been paid the right amount months ago when they first filed for unemployment,” said Bhairavi Desai, the director of the New York Taxi Worker Alliance.

   “I tried to contact [the Pandemic Assistance Program many] times, but no one answered the phone,” said out-of-work driver Helal Uddin, 37, who is owed almost $4,000 in back-payments. “One or two hours I waited on the line, but nobody answered me. Today I called: automatic hang-up,” 

     “I’m not driving because I don’t have money to fix my car. People don’t have money to use taxis or Uber.”