The four other companies soon to be facing trouble similar to that facing Uber and Lyft are: Postmates (delivery service), Instacart (delivery service), Washio (a laundry service), and Shyp (a shipping company). The lead attorney on the case indicates that companies need to realize that misclassification of employees is not something to mess around with. Doing so is a very real violation of labor laws.
Workers from all four companies sued their employers this week. They argued that they should be classified as employees rather than independent contractors and that their misclassification results in a lack of pay due according to minimum wage requirements as well as overtime pay laws. All three cases were filed on June 29th.
The fight to reclassify Uber and Lyft drivers is still underway with two cases set to go in front of a jury trial in August. Lawsuits have also been filed against Homejoy (a cleaning service), Caviar (food delivery startup), and Postmates. Shyp, …show more content…
For 1099 employees or independent contractors, it’s very different. Employees frequently have valuable benefits offered, but not so for independent contractors! When a worker is an “employee,” the employer has the right to control certain aspects of their work environment and behavior (i.e. how they dress, how they interact with customers, etc.) This is not the case when dealing with independent