California Appellate Panel Keeps Prop 22 Alive

In the ongoing litigation over Proposition 22, California's voter-approved ballot measure that exempted ride-sharing companies from Assembly Bill 5, a state appellate panel affirmed in part a ruling that the proposition is invalid but severed the offending provision to keep the law in effect.

Enacted in November 2020, Prop 22 permitted app-based driving companies such as Uber and Lyft to classify their drivers as independent contractors and not employees.

The measure exempted ride-sharing companies from AB 5, a bill that codified the ABC test found in the California Supreme Court's 2018 decision Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles, which established a presumption that workers are employees unless the employer can affirmatively prove three different elements.