Uber Sued for Allegedly Violating Massachusetts Labor Law

From the Boston Globe:

[A suit] filed Thursday in Suffolk County Superior Court in
Boston by Shannon Liss-Riordan…accuses Uber of misclassifying its
drivers as independent contractors to avoid paying them the same as
employees with benefits.

The case also charges that Uber does not give drivers the
total proceeds they receive from gratuities and “retains a portion
of the gratuity for itself.” That alleged conduct violates the
Massachusetts Tips Law, said Liss-Riordan….

Liss-Riordan has filed a similar labor case against Uber
in US District Court in California, where the company is based. The
federal judge presiding in that case ordered Uber in May to allow
its drivers to opt out of an arbitration clause in their contract
with the company. That clause prevents drivers from joining
Liss-Riordan’s class action lawsuit.

While the fact that Uber drivers generally work when and
as they will without shifts assigned by the company, and receive
not a set salary but merely portions of what they directly earn via
using the company’s app, might lead to a common-sense decision that
they are not “employees” but independent contractors using and
paying for a service that Uber supplies (the app), apparently
Massachusetts has a more curious definition:

Massachusetts has some of the most stringent employment laws in
the country. Under state law, for workers not to be considered as
employees they must do work for a company that is “outside the
usual course of business of the employer.”

“All we have to prove is that Uber is a car service and that the
people who drive their cars are employees,” said Liss-Riordan.
“Everyone who does the work should be an employee.”

While noting they don’t intend to comment specifically on
ongoing litigation, an Uber spokesperson this morning said via
email that in general the company “will vigorously defend the
rights of riders to enjoy competition and choice, and for drivers
to build their own small business.”

Reason on Uber.