[ad_1]
On a Sunday afternoon in August 2021, the Lyft driver Isabella Lewis was shot within the head by a passenger she had simply picked up and left for useless as the person sped off in what seemed to be a deadly carjacking.
Lyft launched a press release to the press on the time saying it was “heartbroken by this incident” – however Allyssa Lewis, Isabella’s sister, mentioned her household had by no means obtained direct communication from the corporate, nor any monetary compensation.
As a substitute, within the days following the killing, Lyft despatched an insurance coverage consultant to Isabella’s deserted, bullet-riddled automobile earlier than the household may acquire her remaining belongings, Allyssa mentioned.
“There’s nothing that might deliver my sister again, however it might have meant so much simply with the ability to get Lyft to acknowledge that she died whereas working for them,” Allyssa mentioned.
Isabella was considered one of at the very least 50 US gig staff killed on the job since 2017, a brand new research from the advocacy group Gig Employees Rising stories. The group discovered dozens of staff for companies corresponding to Lyft, Uber and Postmates have been fatally assaulted on the job – together with six within the first two months of 2022. The report prices the businesses don’t do sufficient to mitigate “an pressing security disaster”, or assist victims’ households following assaults.
“This can be a systemic and sickening apply during which these companies – which don’t do sufficient to guard their staff – attempt to shield their backside line by offloading threat on to them,” mentioned Cherri Murphy, a co-author of the report.
Victims had been recognized via publicly obtainable sources together with information stories, police paperwork, authorized filings and GoFundMe fundraising campaigns, the group mentioned. Most gig companies don’t publicly share information on the variety of deaths, which means the figures had been prone to be “a lot better” than what was listed within the report, it added.
Of the greater than 50 staff killed on the job, 63% had been staff of shade, the research discovered, although they comprise lower than 39% of the general US workforce. Whereas most gig financial system companies don’t launch range figures for his or her workforces, impartial surveys point out greater than 78% of gig staff are folks of shade.
Different research echo these findings: a current Pew Analysis Middle report confirmed gig staff of shade are extra seemingly than those that are white to say they’ve at the very least typically felt unsafe or been sexually harassed on the job.
Murphy herself used to drive for Lyft and accomplished greater than 12,000 rides earlier than she grew to become disillusioned with the shortage of assist from the corporate and monetary instability of the job. She mentioned usually, households of staff obtain no compensation for deaths that happen whereas engaged on the apps.
Such was the case for Allyssa, who mentioned the grief she felt about her sister’s demise was compounded by Lyft’s response.
“To have somebody working to your firm to provide her life whereas on the job, and her household can not even get a pat on the again, or any private outreach,” Allyssa mentioned. “It makes it really feel like she didn’t matter to them.”
A Lyft spokesperson, Gabriela Condarco-Quesada, mentioned the corporate was “dedicated to doing every part we are able to to assist shield drivers from crime” and had invested in security know-how, insurance policies and partnerships.
“Since day one, we’ve constructed security into each a part of the Lyft expertise,” she mentioned. Lyft has a partnership with the safety firm ADT that permits drivers to attach with professionals in the event that they really feel unsafe. Lyft additionally proactively screens rides and reaches out to drivers if it notices irregularities to attach them with emergency providers.
Condarco-Quesada mentioned Lyft had tried to contact Isabella Lewis’s household on the day it discovered of the incident to supply assist. “Sadly, we had been unable to make contact with them,” she mentioned.
However Veena Dubal, a labor legislation professor on the College of California, Hastings, mentioned responses just like the one the Lewis household obtained had been endemic to the enterprise mannequin of gig financial system corporations, which have for years battled to categorise staff as impartial contractors somewhat than workers entitled to compensation.
“These corporations don’t comply with greatest apply ideas as a result of these would make them appear to be an precise employer,” she mentioned.
Dubal famous that whereas conventional driving jobs like driving taxis had at all times include threat, such risks had been exacerbated by the algorithms and expectations of ride-hailing apps.
“These platforms are designed to punish drivers for not selecting up passengers,” she mentioned. “This implies you might be always nervous about rankings and are incentivized to not belief your intestine feeling whether it is telling you to finish or cancel a trip.”
Gig companies have up to now acknowledged the problem of violent assaults on their staff. Uber moved to maintain drivers safer in 2016 after 16 drivers had been killed in Brazil.
However staff and officers have known as on corporations to do extra. Gig Employees Rising set out quite a few calls for, together with calling for staff’ compensation for accidents and deaths that happen on the job and the correct of staff to unionize.
The group known as for the tip of pressured arbitration, which requires staff to settle these issues out of courtroom and away from public scrutiny. Such calls for have grown in reputation as politicians more and more take gig financial system companies to job.
It additionally known as on corporations to extend transparency about what number of accidents and deaths happen yearly.
Condarco-Quesada, the Lyft spokesperson, mentioned the corporate launched information in its yearly Neighborhood Security Report, which incorporates information about fatalities that happen on the platform.
Uber, which owns Postmates, releases the same report however didn’t instantly reply to request for remark.
“Each employee deserves to really feel secure of their office,” mentioned the congresswoman Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts in a press release. “We should stand with staff and demand that these companies take accountability and pay a residing wage, present good advantages, and, crucially, assure office protections that successfully and equitably defend staff from violence.”
In response to the research’s publishing on Wednesday, staff in 5 US cities are holding a nationwide day of motion for these misplaced on the job, together with sending a motor caravan to the San Francisco house of the Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
“The dearth of look after these staff is a direct end result of a enterprise mannequin set as much as milk as a lot as potential for executives,” mentioned Murphy. “Nobody once they present as much as work must be killed.”
[ad_2]
Source link