Much to Uber's dismay, the state of California has ruled that the ride-sharing company's drivers are employees, not independent contractors.
According to The New York Times, California's Labor Commission made the possibly "precedent-setting" ruling in March but it just surfaced after Uber filed an appeal on Tuesday. In the ruling, Uber was ordered to reimburse former driver Ann Berwick more than $4,100 in expenses and other costs she incurred while working for the company.
Uber says it shouldn't have to pay these fees because it's just a "logistics company," which helps connect independent drivers and passengers and facilitates their private transactions, not a transportation company with a fleet of its own vehicles and drivers. Uber argued that it doesn't set hours for its employees or quotas for how many trips they must take during a given shift.
The Labor Commission didn't quite agree, arguing that company acts like an employer by providing drivers with phones and deactivating them if they're inactive for 180 days.
"Defendants hold themselves out as nothing more than a neutral technological platform, designed simply to enable drivers and passengers to transact the business of transportation," the ruling states. "The reality, however, is that defendants are involved in every aspect of the operation."
Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the ruling.
The news comes after Uber earlier this year suspended the driving privileges of up to a dozen California drivers who registered their cars as commercial vehicles in response to a memo from the state Department of Motor Vehicles urging them to do so.
Meanwhile, the company is working with Carnegie Mellon on self-driving taxis; see more in the video below.