BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts's top court on Thursday cleared the way for voters in the state to decide whether drivers for app-based companies like Uber Technologies and Lyft should be classified as independent contractors who would be entitled to some new benefits but would not be legally employees.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rejected a labor-supported challenge to an industry-backed coalition's proposal to cement the drivers as contractors. But it also said it would allow a dueling ballot measure that would allow the drivers to unionize to move forward.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston)