Garuda Labs, operator of temp worker platform Instawork, has been hit with a representative action lawsuit, accusing the company of shorting worker pay and other violations of California labor law.
The lawsuit was brought under California's controversial Private Attorney General Act law, which allows trial lawyers and one named plaintiff to bring a suit on behalf of all workers at a company accused of violating state labor law. The lawyers can then recover potentially large attorney fees in the process.
Garuda "engaged in a uniform policy and systematic scheme of wage abuse against their hourly-paid or non-exempt employees," alleges the suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court.
The company paid workers not with checks or cash, but with an "InstaCard," the suit alleges.
"Plaintiff and other aggrieved employees were then required to withdraw their payment of wages from an automatic teller machine (“ATM”)," the suit says. "However, Plaintiff and other aggrieved employees were not able to withdraw all their wages from the ATM due to restrictions. As an example, the ATM could not dispense payment of wages in its entirety to Plaintiff and aggrieved employees because the ATM could not dispense funds less than $20.
"Because of the foregoing, Plaintiff and other aggrieved employees could not receive the entirety of their wages on demand."
The company also allegedly failed to keep complete and accurate payroll records, the suit says.
The suit seeks to represent "current, former and/or future employees of Defendants who worked, work, or will work for Defendants as hourly non-exempt employees in California."
Also named as defendants are unnamed companies that employed the workers through Instawork.
The lawsuit seeks $100 for each initial violation and $200 for subsequent violations, plus civil penalties, attorney fees and court costs.
The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys David Lavi and Arie Ebrahimian of E&L, LLP.
Brand v. Garuba Labs, LLC, San Francisco Superior Court, CGC-23-609104