Based on their line of questioning, California Supreme Court justices seemed to be reaching for a compromise as they heard oral arguments Tuesday in the long-running legal saga over whether gig workers should be considered independent contractors or employees.

Proposition 22, the gig industry-backed initiative that 58% of state voters passed in 2020, has been mired in a legal back-and-forth since it became law — including being ruled unconstitutional by a Superior Court judge before being upheld by a state appeals court. Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and other companies have used the law to treat their drivers and delivery workers in California as independent contractors, not as employees.

The specific question before the state’s highest court is whether Prop. 22 conflicts with the state Legislature’s constitutional power to enforce a complete workers’ compensation system. Because of a clause in the initiative declaring gig workers independent contractors not eligible for workers’ comp, the whole law could be thrown out. But the justices did not seem to want to do that.

John Mejia, an Alameda gig worker in his late 60s who has driven for Uber and Lyft for nine years, said contractor status means doing without safeguards given to virtually every other worker in California. “There’s no unemployment insurance. There is no workers comp. There’s no health insurance,” said Mejia, a member of the Gig Workers Union, an association representing Californians who work for corporations including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart.

“If you’re sick you don’t make any money and you suffer. Being a contractor under Prop. 22 basically takes away California civil rights that everyone in California has.”

Gig drivers must cover their own health care costs, and pay for fuel or charging, tires, and vehicle maintenance, Mejia noted. Because their pay is so low — a UC Berkeley Labor Center report issued Monday found median wages with tips amounted to $7.63 to $11.43 — many gig drivers work 12-hour days, and sleep in their cars, Mejia said.

“It’s unfair that you could take the ballot measure in California and build your own law and take advantage of the people who work with you and your customer,” Mejia said.

When Scott Kronland, the lawyer who argued on behalf of SEIU California and four gig workers, said that Prop. 22 conflicts with the Legislature’s exclusive and unlimited authority over workers’ comp, Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero asked whether legislators could restore workers’ comp for gig workers.

Associate Justice Goodwin Liu said there is “still ambiguity there” over voter initiative power, which is supposed to be equal to legislative power: “Does that mean voters cannot act in this field, (workers’ comp), whatsoever?”

If Prop. 22 is thrown out in its entirety, it would affect some gig workers who have come to depend on some of its provisions — such as guaranteed earnings of 120% of minimum wage for the time they spend driving or delivering, which they didn’t have before the initiative became law.