Uber Technologies, Inc. (UT8.DE)

UPDATE 1-Massachusetts top court hears challenges to gig worker ballot measures

Massachusetts's highest court on Monday weighed whether ballot proposals that would redefine the relationship between app-based companies like Uber Technologies and Lyft and their drivers should be allowed to go before voters in November. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justices expressed concern, during oral arguments in Boston, over parts of an industry-supported group's proposal to ask voters to affirm that under state law, drivers are independent contractors with some new benefits but cannot be considered company employees. Jennifer Grace Miller, a lawyer for the measure's opponents, said voters would be asked to weigh in on not one policy question but a series of separate areas of employment law that could not legally be bundled together for their consideration.