In one of the more shocking developments in a year full of surprises, a federal appeals court breathed new life into the Biden administration’s mandate-or-test emergency vaccine rule with a stunning Friday afternoon decision....more
A federal appeals court just resurrected a pivotal gig economy battle that at one time seemed to be the center of the legal universe – but for a variety of reasons seems much less important these days. The 9th Circuit Court...more
Rideshare companies in California have now been ordered by an appeals court to reclassify their drivers as employees, threatening to upend the very foundation of the gig economy business model that offers flexibility and...more
Just a few hours before they were subject to a court order forcing them to transform all of their drivers from independent contractors to employees, a California appeals court spared the nation’s two largest rideshare...more
Gig economy companies received bad news yesterday when yet another federal appeals court ruled that delivery drivers – even independent contractors – can escape otherwise valid arbitration agreements. This is now the third...more
8/20/2020
/ Amazon ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employment Litigation ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification
A federal appeals court just handed Grubhub – and gig economy companies in general – a pivotal victory by narrowly interpreting an exception allowing certain transportation workers (including independent contractors) to...more
8/10/2020
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employment Litigation ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Independent Contractors ,
Interstate Commerce ,
Misclassification ,
New Prime v Oliveira
You’ve been waiting quite a long time for a critical ruling from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the very fabric of the gig economy model – and you’re going to have wait even longer. The appeals court just announced late...more
With just a one-page, single-paragraph Order, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday provided the faintest glimmer of hope for gig economy businesses everywhere – but especially for those in California. The federal...more
There’s no way to sugarcoat this one. Yesterday the 9th Circuit handed a big loss to gig economy companies by concluding that last year’s Dynamex decision from the California Supreme Court and its wide-reaching ABC test...more
The $100 million settlement announced Monday by a transportation company to resolve a long-running misclassification claim might be the direct result of a January Supreme Court decision, and might be a troubling harbinger of...more
3/13/2019
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Contract ,
Exceptions ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Independent Contractors ,
Motion to Compel ,
New Prime v Oliveira ,
Question of Arbitrability ,
Reaffirmation ,
SCOTUS
Regular readers of this blog know about the Grubhub gig economy misclassification litigation. The quick version: Grubhub squared off with a former driver, Raef Lawson, in the nation’s first-ever gig economy misclassification...more
3/4/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Appeals ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employee Definition ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Wage and Hour
After the Supreme Court ruled a few weeks ago that independent contractors working “in interstate commerce” were exempt from arbitration pacts due to a broad interpretation of the Federal Arbitration Act (New Prime v....more
2/20/2019
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Employment Contract ,
Exceptions ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Motion to Compel ,
New Prime v Oliveira ,
Question of Arbitrability ,
Reaffirmation ,
SCOTUS
My colleagues Andy Scott and Felix Digilov reported on last week’s Supreme Court decision that rejected a trucking company’s effort to force its drivers to arbitrate their wage and hour claims against the company, despite the...more
1/23/2019
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Employment Contract ,
Exceptions ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Motion to Compel ,
New Prime v Oliveira ,
Question of Arbitrability ,
Reaffirmation ,
SCOTUS
The next shot has been fired in the long-running misclassification dispute between plaintiff Raef Lawson and gig economy giant Grubhub, as the company filed its Answering Brief with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals late...more
1/11/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Appeals ,
Appellate Briefs ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Code ,
Lawson ,
Misclassification ,
Reimbursements ,
Retroactive Application
The Grubhub misclassification battle, which has dominated gig economy headlines for the past year or so, has taken another interesting turn. An Uber driver has jumped into the fray, offering his opinion about why the 9th...more
11/21/2018
/ ABC Test ,
Amicus Briefs ,
Appeals ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Retroactive Application ,
Statutory Interpretation ,
Uber
The first-ever trial on the gig economy misclassification to reach a judicial merits determination has now turned into the first-ever appeal on gig economy misclassification. And late Friday evening, the plaintiff seeking to...more
On the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year in Epic Systems Corporation v. Lewis, which held that the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) does not bar class or collective action waivers in arbitration...more
10/3/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Back Pay ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Epic Systems Corp v Lewis ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Independent Contractors ,
Liquidated Damages ,
Misclassification ,
Motion to Compel ,
NLRA ,
Savings Clause ,
Wage and Hour
It was just a matter of time. After the Supreme Court cleared the way for businesses to use class waivers with their employees and contractors with the Epic Systems ruling this past May, many observers expected that the...more
9/26/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dismissals ,
Drivers ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
NLRA ,
Ridesharing ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While the law always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, there have been an unprecedented number of changes for the past few years—and this past month...more
9/17/2018
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Background Checks ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Class Action ,
Collective Action Waivers ,
Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act (CCRAA) ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Training ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Failed Legislation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Freedom of Religion ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Baker ,
Governor Brown ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA) ,
Licenses ,
Misclassification ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
OFCCP ,
Opinion Letter ,
Opioid ,
Over-Time ,
Pay Gap ,
Pending Legislation ,
Portable Benefits ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
Ridesharing ,
Right to Work ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Union Dues ,
Unions ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Injury
When the Supreme Court decided this May that businesses were permitted to enter into class waiver agreements with employees and contractors, forcing them into individual arbitration proceedings over workplace disputes rather...more
There has been a burst of recent Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) decisions from around the country that can teach valuable lessons to employers. Last month, we looked at three cases examining the question of whether an...more
8/9/2018
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appeals ,
Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Dismissals ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Essential Functions ,
Job Descriptions ,
Job Duties ,
Over-Time ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Wage and Hour
Sure, there have been some high-profile legal setbacks for gig economy businesses in the area of misclassification lately; the Dynamex case was a punch in the gut for California businesses, and the Pimlico Plumbers case is a...more
6/27/2018
/ Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employment Litigation ,
Former Employee ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Reversal ,
Right to Control ,
Unemployment ,
Unemployment Insurance
Now that sports betting has been legalized by the Supreme Court, I might want to consider laying some action on an upcoming game, because I am on fire with my recent predictions. In a blog post from last week, I correctly...more
5/16/2018
/ ABC Test ,
Appeals ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Reimbursements ,
Retroactive Application ,
Wage and Hour
Late Friday afternoon, the attorneys for the worker who came out on the losing end of the Grubhub misclassification trial asked the appeals court to return the case to the lower court for a new hearing. Their reasoning? Last...more
5/8/2018
/ ABC Test ,
Appeals ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Motion to Remand ,
Restaurant Industry ,
Retroactive Application ,
Wage and Hour
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has lowered the bar when it comes to the type of evidence plaintiffs need to present in order to have their claims certified as a class action. The federal appeals court panel ruled that...more