&gt; Whether the employees have been tricked into foregoing some of their rights because they think it&#x27;s better due to marketing spin is irrelevant.<p>I constantly see the same argument over and over and over - they make their own hours, they use their own equipment, they can also work for Lyft, etc. Those are all traits of a contractor, but it doesn&#x27;t defend all the practices that come with being an independent contractor.<p>From the IRS website (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.irs.gov&#x2F;Businesses&#x2F;Small-Businesses-&amp;-Self-Employed&#x2F;Independent-Contractor-Defined" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.irs.gov&#x2F;Businesses&#x2F;Small-Businesses-&amp;-Self-Employ...</a>):<p>&gt; The general rule is that an individual is an independent contractor if the payer has the right to control or direct only the result of the work and not what will be done and how it will be done.<p>&gt; You are not an independent contractor if you perform services that can be controlled by an employer (what will be done and how it will be done). This applies even if you are given freedom of action. What matters is that the employer has the legal right to control the details of how the services are performed.<p>It&#x27;s pretty clear that Uber is controlling the details.