Rideshare, retailers brace for tough U.S. independent contractor rule

After weeks of lobbying the White House on how gig workers should be treated, the rideshare, delivery and retail industries are bracing for a new rule that is likely to make it easier to classify them as employees, multiple sources say. A proposed rule from the Department of Labor, aimed at defining whether gig workers for companies including Uber (UBER.N), Lyft (LYFT.O), DoorDash (DASH.N) and retailers such as Amazon.com Inc are misidentified as independent contractors, is under review at the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and is expected to be released in coming weeks.

Groups representing employers, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, The National Association of Home Builders, The National Retail Federation and the Associated Builders and Contractors have met with officials at the White House's Office of Management and Budget, according to White House records and sources.

Some of the groups have been trying, and failing, to convince the White House that any broad rule would hurt workers who want to remain independent and have flexibility, people familiar with the discussion said. More than one-third of U.S. workers, or nearly 60 million people, performed some sort of freelance work in the past 12 months, a December 2021 survey by freelancing marketplace Upwork showed.