Uber CEO Asks Trump to Provide Relief to Drivers

On Monday, Uber Technologies main executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi wrote to President Donald Trump, inquiring him to present financial help to independent workers influenced by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

“I respectfully and urgently ask for that the economic stimulus you are thinking of, together with any other foreseeable future legislative steps in reaction to COVID-19, consist of protections and benefits for independent workers, not just employees,” Khosrowshahi claimed in the letter.

The drivers on Uber and other experience-sharing platforms these as Lyft are classified as independent workers and do not acquire personnel benefits, like health care.

“My objective in creating to you is not to check with for a bailout for Uber, but rather for support for the independent workers on our platform and, the moment we go past the rapid crisis, the chance to legally present them with a real safety web going forward,” Khosrowshahi extra. “[Our] rules should really protect all workers, not just just one kind of do the job.”

The Uber CEO famous that Uber has about one.three million independent workers on its platform, who are dealing with financial uncertainty due to the minimized desire for rides in the course of the pandemic.

Khosrowshahi also doubled down on maintaining the company’s placement that classifying the drivers as employees is not possible for its small business product.

“Each time a organization gives more benefits to independent workers, the less independent they turn out to be and, with no legislative clarity, the much more uncertainty and threat the organization bears,” he claimed.

Khosrowshahi counted Uber’s initiatives towards the coronavirus, like 14-working day financial support it announced for drivers and supply executives diagnosed with COVID-19 or quarantined by authorities.

The organization has also promised to present free disinfectants for all drivers, “as before long as they turn out to be commercially readily available,” the CEO pointed out.

Uber’s shares shut about four% increased at $22.four on Monday and extra a further 2.63% in the right after-hrs session at $22.ninety nine.

This story originally appeared on Benzinga.

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