ALAMEDA, Calif. – California’s labor commissioner has sued Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. for classifying drivers as contractors instead of employees.
The suit was prompted by California’s “gig worker” law, which took effect Jan. 1 and requires that many companies reclassify workers and offer them benefits, the San Jose's The Mercury News reported.
Uber is challenging the law in court and both companies are pushing a ballot initiative, Proposition 22, to overturn the law, the The Mercury News said.
“Passing Prop. 22 will not only protect the freedom and ability of drivers to earn an income, save hundreds of thousands of jobs and preserve services that local restaurants and vulnerable communities rely on, it will also put an end to this coordinated effort to do the work of Sacramento special interests masked as governance,” Jim Pyatt, a rideshare driver from Modesto, told the Northern California Record.
App-based drivers support Prop. 22 by a 4-to-1 margin because it “enhances their ability to bring home income to their families and preserves their freedom to choose how and when to work,” Pyatt continued.
Nearly 5,000 drivers have filed claims for back wages against Uber and Lyft, Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower said in a statement. They claim the companies have committed "wage theft" by classifying drivers as contractors. The classification “leaves workers without protections such as paid sick leave and reimbursement of drivers’ expenses, as well as overtime and minimum wages."
The suit seeks to recover unpaid wages, penalties and interest; as well as civil penalties and litigation costs.
The state labor department "has botched thousands of claims," C.J. Macklin, senior communications manager for Lyft, told the Record. "They know they don't have the ability to process these claims, so they sent them into a legal abyss, where they know it will take years to resolve them."