Rosa Mendoza, who drives for Uber and Lyft, cleans her car with disinfectant in San Francisco, in 2020. On Tuesday, the state cited Uber and Lyft for safety violations pertaining to how the companies treated their drivers.

State workplace safety regulators cited ride-hailing companies Lyft and Uber for failing to provide masks and gloves to their drivers and otherwise prevent the spread of COVID-19, and for excluding drivers from their general injury and illness prevention plans, Cal/OSHA documents show.

“This is the first time that a state safety agency has extended workplace protections to gig workers, and challenges the companies’ (claim) that they have no responsibility to ensure safety of drivers,” Rideshare Drivers United, a group which represents thousands of gig workers, some of whom brought the complaints, said in a statement.

Uber and Lyft did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Beyond just providing masks and gloves, the companies did not screen drivers for COVID-19 before their shifts, did not notify them when they were exposed to an infected passenger or conduct exposure investigations and did not enforce local and state masking requirements for riders, according to the citations.

They also failed to designate a person to oversee driver safety, communicate health and safety information to drivers, and to train them on preventing workplace violence, including on risks from picking up riders, according to regulators.

The companies also did not provide drivers’ training and safety inspection records when asked for them by state authorities.

The citations issued by the state’s workplace safety regulator are also remarkable because Uber and Lyft drivers are currently classified as contractors, not employees, under state labor law after the passage of Prop 22 in 2020.

The law exempted gig and ride-hailing workers from the state’s AB5 law that would have made them company employees with benefits, although an Alameda County judge ruled Prop 22 unconstitutional last year, a decision currently under appeal.

The citations came with total proposed fines of $2,255 for each company. Companies can and often do appeal fines which are sometimes reduced.

In February Lyft brought back shared rides the company had stopped because of the pandemic. Shortly thereafter about 2,000 drivers who are part of Rideshare Drivers United signed a petition asking for more workplace safety protections from Lyft, which they said the company did not accept.

Drivers filed the complaints against Uber and Lyft with Cal/OSHA shortly afterward.

“Finally Uber and Lyft are being held accountable for their lack of attention to drivers’ and passengers’ health and safety in the name of greed,” Roberto Moreno, a Rideshare driver from San Diego, said in a statement released by Rideshare Drivers United. “I am especially thankful that Cal/OSHA will extend their (veil) of protection to all drivers. No multimillion-dollar corporation is above workers’ rights.”

The drivers also complained about not being paid to sanitize their vehicles and compensation for gloves and masks. Cal/OSHA referred those issues to the state’s Department of Labor Standards Enforcement, which handles wage issues.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a reporter at The San Francisco Chronicle on the Transformation team, where he covers tech culture, workplace safety and labor issues in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and beyond. Prior to joining The Chronicle, he covered immigration for the Daily Journal, a legal affairs newspaper, and a variety of beats at the North Bay Business Journal in Santa Rosa. Chase has degrees in journalism and history from Loyola University Chicago.