Drivers with the New York Taxi Employees Alliance rally in help of laws that might add job protections for app-based for-hire-vehicle drivers. Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.
Credit score: Gerardo Romo / NYC Council
The Metropolis Council authorized on Thursday a pair of measures designed to bolster protections for app-based rideshare drivers and supply staff towards firings with out recourse — generally known as “unfair deactivations.”
The physique handed a measure that might add protections towards unfair deactivations for for-hire automobile drivers, Intro. 0276, by 40 to 7 votes with one abstention. It additionally authorized laws that might add safeguards for meals supply staff, Intro. 1332, by 40 to eight votes.
Each payments intention to forestall unfair deactivations — a apply that drivers and supply staff describe as sudden terminations with no said cause or an impartial appeals course of in place.
The payments have been handed in the course of the closing Metropolis Council said assembly of the present session. Ought to outgoing Mayor Eric Adams veto the laws, Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams — who can also be leaving workplace on the finish of the 12 months — stated it is going to be as much as the seemingly subsequent speaker, Council Member Julie Menin, to override the mayor’s vetoes. Menin is anticipated to be elected speaker in early January, quickly after the subsequent session of the council is sworn in.
“This is just another step in trying to in trying to take care of the human beings behind this technology,” stated outgoing Council Member Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), the prime sponsor of the supply employee invoice.
“These are billion-dollar app companies, and the reason why they’re billion-dollar app companies is because of the workers that bring in these profits for them,” he added. “So I don’t think we’re asking much to treat them fairly, and that if someone is going to get fired, that there needs to be some sort of recourse.”
The laws affecting for-hire-vehicle drivers — backed by the New York Taxi Employees’ Alliance — would place way more restrictions on how the businesses that make use of them, equivalent to Uber and Lyft, can go about deactivating their accounts. It’s designed to forestall drivers from being faraway from the app with no clear cause, advance discover, or a way to enchantment the choice.
Metropolis Council Member Shekar Krishnan rallied with Uber and Lyft drivers for his laws aimed toward strengthening their job protections. Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
The laws would require app corporations to offer a said cause for deactivating a driver — generally known as “just cause” place the burden of proof on them, mandate the corporations give drivers 14 days’ discover earlier than kicking them off the app, and institute an impartial appeals course of for drivers. The 14-day discover would apply to all drivers, aside from these alleged to have dedicated account sharing, fraud, or gross misconduct — equivalent to violence or sexual harassment.
Proponents of the invoice additionally argue a brand new appeals course of is required as a result of the one means for drivers to enchantment the apps’ choices presently is thru the Unbiased Driver’s Guild, a gaggle funded by Uber.
Uber spokesperson Josh Gold, in an announcement, stated the corporate opposes the for-hire-vehicle invoice as a result of it might have “devastating impacts on passenger safety.”
“Among 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’re being terminated, meaning New Yorkers could unknowingly get picked up by someone the company has already fired,” Gold stated.
Lyft spokesperson CJ Macklin expressed an identical sentiment.
“It 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,” Macklin stated.
The opposite invoice handed by the council would offer lots of the identical safeguards for deliveristas, who work for apps together with Uber, DoorDash, Grubhub, Seamless, and Relay. It could additionally require app corporations to offer a cause when reactivating deliveristas; give 120 days’ discover earlier than completely eradicating them; and institute an appeals course of.
Gold stated Uber doesn’t oppose the laws. Grubhub — which owns Relay and Seamless, DoorDash, and Instacart didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
