{"id":46065,"date":"2023-08-08T18:30:48","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T22:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/news\/what-helps-deactivated-uber-and-lyft-drivers-get-back-to-work-heres-what-happened-in-seattle\/"},"modified":"2023-08-08T18:30:50","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T22:30:50","slug":"what-helps-deactivated-uber-and-lyft-drivers-get-back-to-work-heres-what-happened-in-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=46065","title":{"rendered":"What helps deactivated Uber and Lyft drivers get back to work? Here\u2019s what happened in Seattle."},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When gig workers get deactivated, or \u201cdigitally fired,\u201d most of them can get reactivated when a third party gets involved, a new study finds. <\/p>\n

Eighty percent of Seattle ride-hailing drivers who were kicked off Uber and Lyft in the past couple of years were allowed back on the apps after being represented by a Driver Resolution Center first established under a city ordinance, according to University of Washington researchers, who also concluded that racial bias can play a role in deactivations.<\/p>\n

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Deactivations of on-demand platform workers \u2014 which can keep them from earning money on the apps for extended periods of time, or even permanently \u2014 are common enough that cities and states around the U.S. are trying to address the issue. An ordinance implemented in Seattle in 2021 established the center to help the city\u2019s ride-hailing drivers, including by giving them legal representation when necessary. It was run by the Teamsters-affiliated Drivers Union, which represents more than 30,000 Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers in Washington state.<\/p>\n

Most of the drivers were kicked off the apps for \u201cminor\u201d reasons, Nicholas Weber, an assistant professor at the University of Washington and one of the paper\u2019s authors, told MarketWatch. He gave examples: \u201cThere was an expired tag on my car. Or I grew a beard, and your facial-recognition tech doesn\u2019t recognize me.\u201d Most of those cases \u201cshould be pretty easily resolvable,\u201d Weber added.<\/p>\n

When drivers had representation, the median time they spent out of work was reduced from about 11 weeks to less than six weeks, the researchers also found.<\/p>\n

Mugtaba Mohammed, a ride-hailing driver in Kirkland, Wash., a suburb of Seattle, said he has been driving for both Uber and Lyft for the past several years and has been kicked off both platforms for different reasons. He said that with the help of the union, he has since resumed working for Uber while still being deactivated by Lyft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a student here, working to help my family in Sudan,\u201d Mohammed said. \u201cIt\u2019s really important for drivers to have a union. They call, email, follow up with phone calls\u201d on drivers\u2019 behalf, he said.<\/p>\n

From the archives (March 2023):<\/strong> A driver spent $180,000 to start an Uber Black business. Then the company deactivated his account.<\/p>\n

The report was based on information from the researchers\u2019 data-sharing agreement with the resolution center, which included an analysis of the center\u2019s work from July 1, 2021 to Jan. 31, 2023 involving about 1,400 deactivation cases, a survey of 134 affected drivers, and interviews with more than a dozen of those drivers.<\/p>\n

The researchers recommended that policymakers look at the dispute-arbitration model that proved to help ride-hailing drivers in Seattle regain their ability to earn on the apps. <\/p>\n

\u201cPolicy debates in the USA have predominantly focused on reclassifying app-based workers as employees in order to realize safe working conditions,\u201d they wrote. \u201cThe right to challenge deactivations and access to third-party representation can also help improve working conditions on the ground sooner than employee status may be implemented.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers also found that Black, Asian and Latinx drivers were reactivated at a higher rate, 49.6%, than white drivers, at 33.6%. \u201cWe argue that this finding reflects a racially biased practice of driver deactivation,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

Weber expanded on that in an interview. \u201cWhat it shows is that drivers who are being deactivated not for good reasons are drivers of color,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is either a significant racial bias in algorithmic decision-making, or potentially a very strong customer bias, like complaints levied against drivers that don\u2019t look like you or speak like you.\u201d<\/p>\n

That finding echoes results from a similar report published earlier this year, which surveyed ride-hailing drivers in California and found that 45% of them thought they were deactivated because of discrimination, possibly because of their race, ethnicity, accent, religion or gender.<\/p>\n

Asked about the Seattle study, a Lyft spokesperson called its methodology flawed. \u201cIt solely looked at Seattle\u2019s problematic and soon-to-be-replaced driver resource ordinance process and didn\u2019t take into account the other ways drivers had available to request a deactivation review, naturally creating a selection bias that undermines its results,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The Seattle ordinance that the Lyft spokesperson called problematic\u00a0was superseded\u00a0by\u00a0a statewide law\u00a0backed by the company, which went into effect Jan. 1. But the law includes a similar driver-resolution center also run by the Drivers Union.<\/p>\n

An Uber spokesperson, meanwhile, said the company does not collect race or ethnicity information when drivers sign up for the platform. <\/p>\n

\u201cDriver deactivations may result from incidents or repeated violations of community guidelines,\u201d the spokesperson said, adding that the company does not use race or ethnicity to make deactivation decisions. \u201cThe data from the DRC clearly shows that there is inequality, and we\u2019re committed to working together with them to gradually reduce the number of such cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next:<\/strong> As Uber drivers complain of deactivations and \u2018policies that keep us in poverty,\u2019 company issues its own civil-rights audit<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When gig workers get deactivated, or \u201cdigitally fired,\u201d most of them can get reactivated when a third party gets involved, a new study finds. Eighty percent of Seattle ride-hailing drivers who were kicked off Uber and Lyft in the past couple of years were allowed back on the apps after being represented by a Driver […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-46065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat helps deactivated Uber and Lyft drivers get back to work? 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