加利福尼亞裁定優步司機屬於員工

In what could prove to be a ruling with serious implications for the on-demand economy, the California Labor Commission has ruled that an Uber driver should be classified as an employee, not an independent contractor.

加州勞工委員會(California Labor Commission)裁定，優步(Uber)司機應屬於員工，而不是獨立的承包商。該裁定可能會對按需經濟造成重大影響。

The ruling, made June 3, came to light after Uber filed an appeal Tuesday. The ruling ordered the company to reimburse Barbara Ann Berwick, a former Uber driver, $4,152.20 in expenses and other costs for the period when Berwick worked as a driver.

這項裁定是在6月3日做出的，在優步本週二提起上訴後才受到外界關注。該裁定要求該公司償付芭芭拉·安·貝里克(Barbara Ann Berwick)擔任優步司機期間發生的4152.20美元（約合2.5萬元人民幣）開支和費用。

Uber has long positioned itself as a “logistics company,” an app that drivers and passengers use merely to facilitate private transactions and not a transportation fleet with tens of thousands of employee drivers. The company argued it did not exert any control over the hours its drivers worked and did not require drivers to complete a minimum number of trips, according to the court filing.

優步對自己的定位不是一個有數萬員工的運輸車隊，而是一家“後勤公司”，司機和乘客使用其應用，僅僅是爲了便於私人交易。法庭文件顯示，該公司認爲它對司機的工作時長沒有進行任何控制，也沒有要求司機完成最低的載客次數。

But the Labor Commission cited many instances in which it said Uber acted more like an employer. The ruling noted that Uber provided drivers with phones and had a policy of deactivating its app if drivers were inactive for 180 days.

但勞工委員會列舉了很多實例，來說明優步的行爲更像是一個僱主。這項裁定指出，優步爲司機配備了手機，並制定了一個政策：如果司機連續180天沒有提供服務，公司就會停用其賬號。

“Defendants hold themselves out as nothing more than a neutral technological platform, designed simply to enable drivers and passengers to transact the business of transportation,” the ruling states. “The reality, however, is that defendants are involved in every aspect of the operation.”

“被告堅稱自己無非是一箇中立的技術平臺，目的只是爲了讓司機和乘客進行運輸業務交易，”裁決寫道。“但實際情況是，被告參與了交易的各個方面。”

In a statement, Uber said “the California Labor Commission's ruling is nonbinding and applies to a single driver.” The California Labor Commission did not immediately respond to phone and email requests for comment.

在一份聲明中，優步說“加州勞工委員會的裁定是沒有約束力的，僅適用於具體的某個司機”。加州勞工委員會沒有立即迴應請求置評的電話和電郵。

Uber, valued at $40 billion and in talks to raise money at about a $50 billion valuation, has become the symbol of the on-demand economy. These online services and apps act as virtual labor marketplaces for people willing to use their own possessions — cars, homes, even parking spaces — to provide services to the public at the touch of a smartphone button.

優步是一家估值40億美元的公司，正在準備以50億美元左右的估值籌集資金，它已經成爲按需經濟的象徵。這些在線服務和應用提供了虛擬的就業市場，如果你願意通過智能手機，用自己的財產——汽車、住房，甚至停車位——爲他人提供服務，在智能手機上就可以做到。

The category of on-demand companies has exploded. Venture capitalists have invested more than $9.4 billion into such startups since 2010, according to data from CB Insights, a venture capital analysis firm, spawning on-demand laundry services and on-demand hair primpers, among others.

經營按需經濟的企業出現了爆炸式增長。風險資本分析公司CB Insights的數據顯示，自2010年以來，已經有超過94億美元的風投資金注入了這類初創公司，大量催生了按需洗衣、按需修飾儀容等諸多服務。

Given that Uber has disrupted entrenched taxi and transportation industries, the company, which is based in San Francisco and led by Travis Kalanick, has often run into regulatory hurdles worldwide. In China, local authorities have raided Uber offices in two cities over questions about whether its service is legal because drivers are not licensed. In the United States, cities including Portland, Oregon, have claimed that Uber operated an “illegal, unregulated transportation service.”

優步總部設在舊金山，首席執行官是特拉維斯·卡蘭尼克(Travis Kalanick)。該公司顛覆了樹大根深的出租車和交通行業，因此經常在全球各地遇到監管障礙。在中國的兩個城市，地方政府質疑其服務的合法性，對該公司的辦公室進行了突擊檢查，原因是優步司機沒有服務許可證。在俄勒岡州波特蘭等城市，有人稱優步在經營“不受監管的非法運輸服務”。

Classifying Uber's drivers as employees may turn out to be an even bigger roadblock to the company's business than regulatory changes because it could change Uber's cost structure, requiring it to offer health insurance and other benefits, as well as paying salaries. On-demand companies have been premised on the idea that people who find piecemeal work through these online marketplaces are freelancers, not employees entitled to costly benefits.

相對於監管政策的變化，將優步司機歸類爲員工可能會給該公司的業務帶來更大的阻礙，因爲這可能會改變優步的成本結構，要求其向司機提供健康保險和其他福利，並且支付工資。而按需公司經營的前提是，人們通過這些網上市場找到零碎的工作，他們是自由職業者，不是員工，因此不享受福利待遇，增加公司成本。

Uber's driver ranks have swelled globally. At a presentation this month celebrating Uber's five-year anniversary, Kalanick said the company had 26,000 drivers in New York City alone, 15,000 in London, 22,000 in San Francisco, 10,000 in Paris and 20,000 in Chengdu, China. The company is now operating its service in more than 300 cities across six continents.

在全球範圍內，優步的司機人數大幅增加。本月是優步誕生五週年紀念，卡蘭尼克表示，該公司在在紐約有2.6萬名司機，在倫敦有1.5萬，舊金山2.2萬，巴黎1萬，成都2萬。該公司目前在六個大洲的300多個城市經營業務。

“Every single month, Uber is adding hundreds of thousands of drivers around the world,” Kalanick said at the presentation.

“每個月，優步在全球的司機人數都會增加幾十萬，”卡蘭尼克在做報告時提到。

Uber has faced legal action in the past over the status of its workers. Drivers have filed class-action lawsuits against the company, including in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, saying they were misclassified as independent contractors.

在優步工作者的身份問題上，該公司以前也遇到過法律訴訟。司機向舊金山的聯邦地區法院以及其他法院提起過集體訴訟，稱該公司將他們歸類爲獨立承包商是錯誤的。

“Uber has been fighting very hard against any decisions like this coming out, and when a fact-finder sat down and looked at the situation, they determined that Uber is an employer,” said Shannon Liss-Riordan, a Boston-based employee and labor rights lawyer who is involved in the class-action lawsuits on behalf of drivers against Uber.

“優步一直非常努力地防止出現這樣的裁決，但希望看到事實真相的人坐了下來，瞭解了實際情況，然後裁定優步是個僱主，”莎倫·里斯-里奧丹(Shannon Liss-Riordan)說。她是波士頓的一名僱員和勞工權益律師，代表優步司機參與了那起集體訴訟。