Hacker News Reader

If a ridesharing platform can't classify drivers as contractors for legal reason, and if they can't classify drivers as employees for business reasons[1], can they classify drivers as owners? It's certainly legal for small businesses not to pay reasonable wages or benefits to their owners.

This ruling may give a substantial advantage to a ride-sharing service structured as a worker's co-operative. That'd be awesome, IMO.

1: this is a very big if

View on HN

I don't know if there is a platform co-op specifically for ride-sharing yet, but it's not out of the question.

https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2018/01/04/the-platform-...

The problem is that the co-operative model is not successfully funded in the initial phases. There is little infrastructure for worker-owned businesses in this country. There is little guidance for getting investment and start-up capital when the overall aim is to primarily put profits into owners' hands and not investors'.

We need a government that supports these efforts first. A good first step would be to pass first-right-of-refusal laws.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com