Uber

Judge Says Lyft’s $12M Settlement Doesn’t Pay Drivers Enough

Lyft has agreed to pay more than $12 million in a proposed class-action lawsuit seeking to classify drivers as employees in California. In a settlement agreement reached late Tuesday, the ride-hailing service would extend additional benefits to drivers and pay them to resolve the dispute but not make them official employees. Shannon Liss-Riordan, the Boston attorney who represented Lyft drivers …


Lyft May Have to Pay More Than $12.25 Million to Settle Driver Classification Suit

A San Francisco District judge threw out a $12.25 million settlement agreement between Lyft and a group of drivers who contended they had been misclassified as independent contractors rather than employees, saying it’s not high enough. If the terms had been accepted by the judge, Vince Chhabria, contractors who drove on the Lyft platform for more than 30 hours would be eligible to receive an …



Uber Settles California Background Check Suit for Up to $25 Million

Uber will pay the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles up to $25 million as part of a lawsuit that accused the startup of misrepresenting its background checks. In 2014, district attorneys brought the suit against Uber for not vetting its drivers thoroughly while claiming its background checks were the “gold standard” in the industry. The cities said Uber’s system was actually not as …


Uber Will Pay $10 Million to Settle Lawsuit Over Driver Background Checks

Uber is on the hook for $10 million after settling a California lawsuit over its misleading statements regarding driver background checks. In 2014, the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco sued the ride-hailing company for claiming its background checks were the most thorough in the industry. In fact, Uber failed to take drivers’ fingerprints like many taxi companies do.


#Nextchat: The Challenges of Employee Classification

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 …


Unions Fight to Reclassify Lyft Drivers as Employees

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.


Why Does Uber Have a ‘Secret’ Emergency Hotline?

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.


U.S. Chamber Sues Seattle to Prevent Uber Drivers From Unionizing

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 …


An Uber Labor Movement Born in a LaGuardia Parking Lot

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 …