(Bloomberg) -- San Francisco lawmakers are poised to pass a resolution accusing Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc. and other platform companies of illegally misclassifying their workers as contractors, and urging city and state officials to take companies to court right away.

The resolution, introduced Tuesday, is co-sponsored by a majority of the city and county’s 11 supervisors, according to an aide to its author, Supervisor Gordon Mar. It specifically calls out the ride-hail firms, as well as DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates, as companies the supervisors say “continue to flout our state and city laws, leaving their misclassified employees without access to unemployment insurance, paid sick leave, medical benefits, workers’ compensation” and other benefits that are urgent during the coronavirus epidemic.

“Denying workers their rights during a public health crisis is immoral, irresponsible, and we must take immediate action to address it,” Mar said in an emailed statement. His office expects a vote on the resolution next week.

Read More: Uber, Lyft Drivers Seize on Virus in Court Fight for Better Pay

Companies and labor advocates have been squaring off over Assembly Bill 5, a state law signed in September that makes it harder for companies to claim their workers are independent contractors rather than employees entitled to full workplace rights. While arguing that the new law doesn’t apply to its drivers, Uber has been making changes to its app to bolster its case, suing to block implementation of A.B. 5, and funding a ballot measure to change it.

A Lyft spokesperson said in an emailed statement that trying to force ride-hail companies to treat drivers as employees during the coronavirus crisis “would result in the widespread elimination of work for hundreds of thousands and the immediate interruption of essential services for vulnerable populations.”

Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi struck a similar note in a letter Monday to President Donald Trump, saying that if the companies were forced to reclassify drivers as employees, “driving or delivering would come to resemble the kind of shift-based work that many people cannot fit into their lives.” Instead, Khosrowshahi urged the president to consider a “‘third way’ that would update our labor laws to remove the forced choice between flexibility and protection for millions of American workers.”

Worker advocates argue that’s a raw deal. App-based workers can get benefits by being correctly recognized as the employees they already are under existing laws, said Patricia Smith, who served as solicitor of the U.S. Labor Department under President Barack Obama. If lawmakers instead opt to create an intermediate category in between employee and contractor, she said, “All you’re going to do is open the door to even more misclassification.”

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.