We’re now just a few weeks away from the nation’s most stringent independent contractor misclassification law taking effect in California. But if a group of truck drivers have their way, the law will stall out before it ever...more
11/19/2019
/ Commerce Clause ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Drivers ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act of 1994 (FAAAA) ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Newsom ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Injunctions ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Misclassification ,
Preemption ,
State Labor Laws ,
Supremacy Clause ,
Trucking Industry
When California’s AB 5 was signed into law last month, a chorus of voices decried the fact that it could radically change the gig economy as we know it. Many contended that the average app-based driver enjoyed being an...more
10/31/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employee Benefits ,
Employee Definition ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
State Labor Laws ,
Transportation Industry ,
Wage and Hour
Gig economy businesses across the country looked to what happened in California this year and cringed. Other states looked there and were intrigued. After California passed the most aggressive independent contract statute in...more
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
California Governor Gavin Newsom wasted little time by signing AB 5 into law yesterday, and his signing statement should cause quite a few eyebrows to be raised. It was no surprise that he signed the bill into effect; he said...more
9/19/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Newsom ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
NLRA ,
State Labor Laws ,
Unions
Chalk up in the win column for businesses. On August 29th, 2019, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that companies found to have misclassified workers as contractors will not automatically face liability for an unfair...more
A California State Senate leader may have thrown cold water on the idea that we will see a 2019 legislative solution to the misclassification debate that would preserve the gig economy workforce model as we know it, but her...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
Earlier this week, the California Assembly overwhelmingly passed AB5 – a measure that would codify the ABC test introduced to the state in last year’s Dynamex decision, and make life even more challenging for the average gig...more
According to Bloomberg Law’s weekly “Punching In” column (an absolute must-read each week) that published today, some congressional leaders are not too pleased with the Labor Department after it published an opinion letter a...more
5/20/2019
/ Administrative Interpretation ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Joint Employers ,
Misclassification ,
Opinion Letter ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Wage and Hour
It’s been a roller coaster two weeks for gig economy companies. On April 29, the U.S. Department of Labor handed gig economy companies a nice outcome by issuing an opinion letter confirming that typical gig workers are,...more
5/15/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Relations ,
Misclassification ,
NLRB ,
NLRB General Counsel ,
Uber
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
In a major positive development for gig economy businesses, the U.S. Department of Labor issued an opinion letter yesterday confirming that certain workers providing work for a virtual marketplace company are, indeed,...more
Great news for gig economy businesses from an Illinois federal court: a judge recently ruled that Grubhub’s delivery drivers were not operating in “interstate commerce,” and therefore were not excluded from the company’s...more
4/16/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employment Contract ,
Exempt-Employees ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Independent Contractors ,
Interstate Commerce ,
Misclassification ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
New Prime v Oliveira ,
Transportation Industry
Last week, we shared with you the news of Uber’s proposed $20 million settlement to resolve a long-running misclassification claim – the parties agreed to the deal, and they just needed the approval of a federal court judge....more
When the news broke yesterday that Uber had agreed to pay a group of drivers $20 million to settle a long-running misclassification claim, you could be forgiven for thinking that the deal sounded like a massive blow to the...more
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
You can have the best independent contractor agreement in the world. You can hire the best gig economy lawyers in the country (ask us, we have some ideas) to draft the absolute crown jewel of a document for you, capturing the...more
2/27/2019
/ ADEA ,
Age Discrimination ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Race Discrimination ,
Title VII
I recently wrote about the January 25 decision from the National Labor Relations Board that makes it easier for businesses to classify their workers as independent contractors (SuperShuttle DFW, Inc.). In a nutshell, now that...more
In a significant ruling which will benefit companies, the National Labor Relations Board on January 25th, revised the test it uses for determining whether workers are employees or independent contractors by making it easier...more
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 first-ever national misclassification case brought against Uber has now been put to bed. A federal court judge in North Carolina yesterday gave her blessing on a $1.3 million settlement wrapping up the litigation, handing...more
1/4/2019
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Class Action ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Uber ,
Unpaid Overtime ,
Wage and Hour
On the eve of the holidays, gig businesses got a gift in the form of a ruling from a Massaschusetts federal court where a clickwrap agreement was held to be sufficient to bind a worker to an arbitration clause. The ruling in...more
12/24/2018
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Dismissals ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Lyft ,
Misclassification ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Terms of Service ,
Wage and Hour
One of my favorite workplace law reporters, Tyrone Richardson of Bloomberg Law, had two stories in the past week addressing the issue of Congress and the gig economy. They present two sides of the same coin when it comes to...more
A recent decision from a federal court in California shows that there is a simple three-step process to follow if you want to ensure that your gig workers are found to be subject to your arbitration provisions. The judge’s...more