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.
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 …
A judge will decide by the end of this month whether to proceed with a proposed class action lawsuit filed by a Jamaican fashion model against Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s modelling agency, the judge’s office said. Alexia Palmer accuses Trump Model Management LLC of lying to the federal government in its work-visa application that said she would be paid a $75,000-a-year …
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 …
For a decade and a half, the big chocolate makers have promised to end child labor in their industry—and have spent tens of millions of dollars in the effort. But as of the latest estimate, 2.1 million West African children still do the dangerous and physically taxing work of harvesting cocoa. What will it take to fix the problem?
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.
Hephzibah Dollar started driving with Uber to make a living and find a home for her two boys. She didn’t have a place to live at the time. So she put her possessions in storage, leased an SUV from Uber’s partner Santander, then drove it all day long until she had to pick up her boys.
Eric B. Meyer
Unfortunately, I did not win last night’s Powerball jackpot. Thus, today, you get a substantive post about employment law, rather than a terse, “Thanks for reading, suckers!” send off. Oh, but you’re still my suckers.