{"id":460254,"date":"2025-12-20T15:25:42","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T15:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/460254\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T15:25:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T15:25:42","slug":"city-council-approves-unfair-deactivations-safeguards-for-rideshare-drivers-delivery-workers-amnewyork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/460254\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council approves \u2018unfair deactivations\u2019 safeguards for rideshare drivers, delivery workers \u2013 amNewYork"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Protesters\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Drivers with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance rally in support of legislation that would add job protections for app-based for-hire-vehicle drivers. Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.<\/p>\n

Credit: Gerardo Romo \/ NYC Council<\/p>\n

The City Council approved on Thursday a pair of measures designed to bolster protections for app-based rideshare drivers and delivery workers against firings without recourse \u2014 known as \u201cunfair deactivations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 51-member body passed a measure that would add protections against unfair deactivations for for-hire vehicle drivers, Intro. 0276<\/a>, by 40 to 7 votes with one abstention, during a Dec. 18 meeting. It also approved legislation that would add safeguards for food delivery workers, Intro. 1332<\/a>, by 40 to 8 votes.<\/p>\n

Both bills aim to prevent unfair deactivations \u2014 a practice that drivers and delivery workers describe as sudden terminations without a stated reason or an independent appeals process in place.\n<\/p>\n

The bills were passed during the final City Council stated meeting of the current session. Should outgoing Mayor Eric Adams veto the legislation, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams \u2014 who is also leaving office at the end of the year \u2014 said it will be up to the likely next speaker, Council Member Julie Menin, to override the mayor\u2019s vetoes. Menin is expected to be elected speaker in early January<\/a>, soon after the next session of the council is sworn in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just another step in trying to take care of the human beings behind this technology,\u201d said outgoing Council Member Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), the prime sponsor of the delivery worker bill, before the vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are billion-dollar app companies, and the reason why they\u2019re billion-dollar app companies is because of the workers that bring in these profits for them,\u201d he added. \u201cSo I don\u2019t think we\u2019re asking much to treat them fairly, and that if someone is going to get fired, that there needs to be some sort of recourse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislation affecting for-hire-vehicle drivers<\/a> \u2014 backed by the New York Taxi Workers\u2019 Alliance \u2014 would place far more restrictions on how the companies that employ them, such as Uber and Lyft, can go about deactivating their accounts. It is designed to prevent drivers from being removed from the app without a clear reason, advance notice, or a means to appeal the decision.<\/p>\n

During a news conference before the votes, City Council Member Shekar Krishnan (D-Queens), the lead sponsor of the for-hire-vehicle bill, said app companies can currently fire drivers \u201cat any time, for any reason, and with no notice, cause or appeal process.\u201d He added his bill \u201cputs an end to unfair firings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bhairavi Desai, New York Taxi Workers Alliance executive director, said in a statement that the bill sets the \u201cstrongest standard\u201d for just cause protections for Uber and Lyft drivers in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe passage of this historic bill means that drivers, who go into debt just to work, will no longer have to worry about going to sleep after a grueling day on the road only to wake and find they have been unfairly deactivated, left with no income overnight at the click of a button,\u201d Desai said.<\/p>\n

\"queensCity Council Member Shekar Krishnan rallied with Uber and Lyft drivers for his legislation aimed at strengthening their job protections. Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

The legislation would require app companies to give a stated reason for deactivating a driver \u2014 known as \u201cjust cause,\u201d placing the burden of proof on them; mandate the firms give drivers 14 days\u2019 notice before kicking them off the app; and institute an independent appeals process for drivers. The 14-day notice would apply to all drivers, except for those alleged to have committed account sharing, fraud, or gross misconduct \u2014 such as violence or sexual harassment.<\/p>\n

Proponents of the bill also argue a new appeals process is needed because the only way for drivers to contest the apps\u2019 decisions currently is through the Independent Driver\u2019s Guild, a group funded by Uber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Uber spokesperson Josh Gold, in a statement, said the company opposes the for-hire-vehicle bill because it could have \u201cdevastating impacts on passenger safety.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong other things, it forces rideshare apps to keep sending rides to drivers for up to 14 more days after a driver has already been told they\u2019re being terminated, meaning New Yorkers could unknowingly get picked up by someone the company has already fired,\u201d Gold said.<\/p>\n

Lyft spokesperson CJ Macklin expressed a similar sentiment.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes it harder for us to keep unsafe drivers off the platform, requires public sharing of sensitive victim information that will have a chilling effect on complaints, and places the city in the untenable position of defending individuals accused of misconduct against those they may have harmed,\u201d Macklin said.<\/p>\n

The other bill passed by the council \u2014 backed by the delivery workers\u2019 group Los Deliveristas Unidos \u2014 would provide many of the same safeguards for delivery workers, who work for apps including Uber, DoorDash, Grubhub, Seamless, and Relay. It would also require app companies to provide a reason when reactivating deliveristas; give 120 days\u2019 notice before permanently removing them; and institute an appeals process.<\/p>\n

Gold said Uber does not oppose the legislation.\n<\/p>\n

Najy Kamal, a A spokesperson Grubhub, which owns Seamless and Relay, appeared to say the app company supports the bill in a statement.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cRemoval from our platform due to breach of contract or a pattern of policy violations is not something we take lightly, and delivery partners deserve a process that is fair and transparent,\u201d Kamal said. \u201cWe appreciate the good-faith engagement of the City Council and Los Deliveristas Unidos, and the clarity Intro 1332-A provides around what does and does not constitute a deactivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instacart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drivers with the New York Taxi Workers Alliance rally in support of legislation that would add job protections…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":460255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,5310,210180,100672,16286,46006,210181,4007,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,210182,210183,4009,210184,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-460254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city-council","10":"tag-council-member-justin-brannan","11":"tag-council-member-shekar-krishnan","12":"tag-doordash","13":"tag-grubhub","14":"tag-independent-drivers-guild","15":"tag-lyft","16":"tag-new-york","17":"tag-new-york-city","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkcity","20":"tag-ny","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-relay","23":"tag-seamless","24":"tag-uber","25":"tag-unfair-deactivations","26":"tag-united-states","27":"tag-united-states-of-america","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","30":"tag-us","31":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115752595054114983","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}