News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:California passes bill that classifies gig economy worker... by gamblor956 on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @10:50AM (#20940779)
When they say "usual course of business" they mean the revenue generating activity, not essential support functions.

I.e., Uber could not outsource driving if it calls itself a transportation company, but it could outsource accounting functions.

Re:California passes bill that classifies gig economy worker... by swalsh on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @10:55AM (#20940820)
I'm just not convinced that's a straightforward question to answer. I once worked for a hardware company that outsourced new hardware development to a contractor. We had a guy in house for maintenance, and the occasional hardware bug that propped up, but we only designed a new box once every 5 years or so... it just didn't make sense to have the team in house. We did manufacturing in house, and we had a huge software team... but though our money came from selling the hardware, we didn't do that in house.

As the company grew much larger, we did eventually expand our product line, and did build a team. But for several years, we just had 1 dedicated hardware guy.

Re:California passes bill that classifies gig economy worker... by wool_gather on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @11:20AM (#20941078)
Sure; there are always edge cases. Non-straightforward situations like this are exactly the reason judges exist, if it comes down to it.
Re:California passes bill that classifies gig economy worker... by woah on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @12:29PM (#20941942)
What a huge drag on people’s livelihoods, making a broad swath of mutually beneficial business relationships illegal until someone goes through a multi year legal battle with the state.
Re:California passes bill that classifies gig economy worker... by DuskStar on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @04:53PM (#20944575)
> Uber could not outsource driving if it calls itself a transportation company

And that's why they're not a transportation company - they're a company that matches two sides of a marketplace connecting drivers with passengers.

Or at least that's one of the directions I'd expect their lawyers to look into.