A rideshare driver organization is supporting a proposed Chicago ordinance that aims to assist app drivers who have been de-platformed by creating an appeals process.
The ordinance is currently pending in the Consumer Protection and Licensing Committee of the Chicago City Council.
If approved, the ordinance will create a resource center where drivers can appeal their cases and secure other resources, assistance, and support.
“Once a worker appeals their deactivation, a determination on their case has to occur within 21 days," said Lenny Sanchez, director of the Independent Drivers Guild (IDG). "If the driver was found to be unfairly deactivated by the application, the application is obligated to reactivate that account and compensate the lost wages the driver would've averaged over the time they were deactivated to the time they appealed and to the time that the determination happened, plus 9% of their lost wages to help cover any overdraft fees that the worker may have incurred."
Chicago is the only major U.S. city with a program that deactivates gig workers, primarily rideshare drivers, for their unpaid ticket debts, according to NPR. In 2019 alone, the city's policy required Uber and Lyft to suspend more than 15,500 people.
“I believe this ordinance will halt unfair deactivations here in Chicago because ride-share apps don't want to pay anybody to just sit around and not work so they are going to be a lot more sure about deactivating accounts before they actually do,” Sanchez told Flexible Work News.
“Right now they have one agent that reviews our cases because it's a voluntary agreement that we have with them but if they were obligated with the potential of facing penalties and fines, we know that they will comply with this system,” he added.
IDG's website notes it is a "driver-led and driver-powered advocacy group fighting for the rights of drivers across the country."
The guild represents more than 250,000 drivers across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Illinois where it fights for drivers' rights through advocacy and policy support. It supports fair wages, benefits and a safe workspace for all drivers.
Although it's unclear whether the proposed ordinance will apply to drivers who have been de-platformed due to ticket debt, IDG offers a workshop every Thursday at its Park Ridge office. It is there that deactivated drivers can learn about other gig work opportunities, such as keeping the elderly company, delivering packages, delivering suitcases from the airport, doing laundry and caring for pets.
“People need the flexibility to be able to work around commitments,” Sanchez said in an interview. “Working on an app is really attractive for them. We see dozens of drivers take advantage of it every week. It's personalized because everyone's got a different situation and they're in different locations.”
Chicago motorists owe $1.45 billion in ticket debt dating to September 1990, and the city issues approximately 3 million tickets per year, according to a 2018 ProPublica report.
The city mails vehicle owners multiple notices to give them time to pay or contest tickets before fines double, get sent to collections or land a car on a list to be booted, and there’s no statute of limitations for unpaid tickets in Illinois. Once debt accumulates, it can last forever.
In 2016, for example, Chicago asked the state to suspend the licenses of more than 21,000 drivers, triple that of 2010, according to the city’s finance department.
“There are a lot of traffic tickets that are being written out there and possibly some that are just a bit frivolous, unfair and that are putting workers in a bad situation,” Sanchez added.
Sec. 54-391 of the Cook County Code of Ordinances states, "The license of any person who has failed to pay any fine, assessment of costs or other sums of money owed to the county pursuant to an order of the Department of Revenue, an order of the Department of Administrative Hearings or court order, by the due date indicated in the order, or within 30 calendar days of becoming a debt due. Owing may be suspended by the Department of Revenue, in accordance with its rules and after affording a hearing.
"The license shall be suspended until such time that the fine, assessment of costs or other sums of money has been fully paid."