United Drivers, San Francisco Bay Area Drivers Association, IBT and SEIU demand SF make Uber, Lyft, pay for drivers’ business licenses

United Drivers, San Francisco Bay Area Drivers Association, IBT and SEIU demand SF make Uber, Lyft, pay for drivers’ business licenses
http://www.sfexaminer.com/union-demands-sf-make-uber-lyft-pay-drivers-bu...

A woman opens the door to an Uber/Lyft car on Market Street in San Francisco. (Jessica Christian/S.F. Examiner)
By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez on June 8, 2016 4:42 pm

Uber and Lyft drivers facing more than $600 in late fees and fines from The City are going to see relief, but not all agree that drivers should have been instructed to pay those fines in the first place.

The San Francisco Treasurer and Tax Collectors Office announced Tuesday it would extend a deadline for Uber and Lyft drivers to register for a business license, which costs $91, to August 31, 2016.

But those 37,000 drivers were previously facing bills as high as $780 for not registering since 2014, the San Francisco Examiner reported earlier this week, which caused an outcry from the ride-hail community.

On the day of the announcement, the Service Employees International Union 1021 called on The City’s Treasurer Jose Cisneros to shift the chargers away from drivers.

“Please force tech giants like UBER and Lyft to pay their fair share, to protect both employee-drivers and riders,” SEIU leaders wrote in an open letter to the treasurer. “The business registration tax should be placed squarely on their shoulders—they are the San Francisco businesses.”

Other groups like the United Drivers and the San Francisco Bay Area Drivers Association also signed the joint letter to Cisneros and the treasurer’s office.

The Teamsters Union, which is organizing Lyft and Uber drivers across the Bay Area, applauded Cisneros’s decision to not charge drivers late fees as well.

“I think they’re right to raise those issues,” said Doug Bloch, Political Director with Teamsters Joint Council 7.

“But people were sitting with those bills on their desk” of hundreds of dollars Bloch said, leading to the Teamsters to contact the treasurer. “We needed to take action immediately, and that’s what we did.”

The 8,000 or so drivers who already registered with The City — and who also paid penalties and interest — will receive a refund within 30 days, said Cisneros said in a statement.

Due to “ongoing litigation regarding the employment status” of rideshare drivers, Cisneros wrote, and a lack of clarity around the law, “we are allowing drivers to register without penalty for prior periods.”

Chelsea Wilson, a Lyft spokesperson, said in a statement, “Penalizing people who use Lyft to make ends meet isn’t good for for drivers, riders or The City.”