The First District Court of Appeal late Thursday affirmed a preliminary injunction forcing Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. to classify their drivers as employees, not independent contractors.

The unanimous three-justice panel concluded that San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman committed no legal error Aug. 10 when he found that the two ride-hailing companies should no longer “evade” California worker classification laws “merely because their businesses are so large that they affect the lives of many thousands of people.”