The gig economy, also known as the 1099 economy, is the workforce trend in which organizations such as Uber, Airbnb and TaskRabbit, contract with independent workers through digital apps to perform temporary assignments. While workers have the ability to determine their own schedules, settings and conditions, they are also caught up in the quandary over several issues, including whether or not …
The battle over whether Lyft drivers are employees or contractors is going another round. The Teamsters union and five Lyft drivers have objected to a proposed class-action settlement that does not force the company to reclassify drivers as employees. Drivers would split $12.25 million under a proposed settlement agreement, which also adds new benefits such as termination protection.
Five Lyft drivers and the Teamsters union will object to a proposed class action settlement, saying it would shortchange drivers by keeping them as independent contractors instead of employees, a union spokesman said on Tuesday. Lyft and larger rival Uber face separate lawsuits brought on behalf of drivers who contend they are employees and entitled to reimbursement for expenses including gas …
Proposed Lyft Settlement Maintains Dangerous Model of Employee Misclassification Doug Bloch (OAKLAND, Calif.) –– Today, the Teamsters Union and Lyft drivers will file legal objections to a class-action lawsuit settlement which would continue to misclassify Lyft employees in California as independent contractors. The objectors, who also plan to intervene in the lawsuit, will file their …
The ride sharing service Uber has been quietly testing an emergency hotline for passengers. Uber has faced safety concerns lately, after an Uber driver was charged with killing six individuals and injured two more during a shooting rampage in Kalamazoo, Mich. this February. The driver picked up Uber passengers for rides in between the shootings.
Uber has a natural enemy of government agencies threatening to impose labor regulations. But the ride-sharing company now has a big ally in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCC), which sued the city of Seattle for passing a law that allows ride-sharing and taxi drivers to unionize. “The ordinance will burden innovation, increase prices, and reduce quality and services for consumers,” the agency …
Last Tuesday afternoon, at LaGuardia Airport’s Lot 7, fifty Uber drivers logged out of the app and staged a strike. Lot 7 is where drivers typically wait to pick up arriving passengers, and it was full of rows of black and gray sedans and S.U.V.s. The protesters stood at the entrance to the lot, holding hand-drawn signs that read, “Support us we have family too” and “Bring back rates to where …
The Wall Street JournalCANCEL Flowers Foods Inc.,FLO 2.80 % the bakery that owns Wonder Bread, Nature’s Own and Tastykake brands, is being sued in more than a dozen states by truck drivers who claim they were improperly classified as independent contractors. The lawsuits allege the company violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act by classifying drivers on its delivery routes as …
Taxi drivers and owners from across Quebec are planning to file an injunction to ban Uber in the province. Members of the Regroupement des travailleurs autonomes Métallos, which represents 4,000 taxi drivers and owners, met for their general assembly in Montreal on Sunday. They discussed an action plan for fighting against the rise and what they say is unfair competition from the popular ride- …
Credit: Janitors / photo on flickrRecently the ridesharing company Lyft, Uber’s largest competitor, settled a pending lawsuit for $12.25 million. Lyft can continue to classify its drivers as independent contractors—a designation that is crucial to the sharing economy’s success. But the settlement may lead to additional difficulties for other sharing-economy companies.