December 3 was the first day of the new legislative session in California, the first day that members could introduce bills for the 2019-2020 legislative session. If the first day is any indication, there is one issue that...more
Last week was a bad week for gig economy companies in Oregon. It wasn’t just the post-holiday malaise that so many suffer from after having to return to work following a long, relaxing weekend that probably included eating...more
12/6/2018
/ Back Wages ,
BOLI ,
Civil Monetary Penalty ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employment Litigation ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Liquidated Damages ,
Minimum Wage ,
Misclassification ,
Over-Time ,
Rate of Pay ,
Settlement Agreements ,
Wage and Hour
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
Bloomberg Law’s Jaclyn Diaz wrote a very interesting story earlier this week asking whether the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) would soon issue an opinion letter to aid gig economy companies with commonplace labor and...more
During Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit earlier this week, Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi dropped a bombshell: the company wants to soon provide benefits to its drivers in an effort to close the gap between what is received...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
We’ve been waiting for something like this since the gig economy was established: a set of rules and regulations, adapted for the modern era and with the gig economy in mind, addressing the issue of independent contractor...more
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
While businesses, chambers of commerce, local leaders, and others have put the full-court press on the California legislature to take action to somehow lessen the impact of the new ABC Test for determining misclassification...more
Although the document itself is fairly dense and complex, specifically focusing on the home-care registry industry, the Labor Department’s latest field assistance bulletin could provide a helpful clue to gig economy companies...more
You remember the game-changing, earth-shattering, monumental decision from the California Supreme Court a few months ago that fundamentally changes the test to determine whether your workers are independent contractors or...more
7/20/2018
/ ABC Test ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Class Action ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Retroactive Application ,
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
It’s impossible to ignore the reverberations that continue to shake the business landscape after the landmark April 30 Dynamex ruling introduced the notorious ABC test to the California gig economy industry. For those living...more
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
The ink on the Dynamex court decision is barely dry, but plaintiffs’ attorneys are not wasting any time in taking advantage of the new misclassification standard established for California businesses. In a pair of lawsuits...more
5/11/2018
/ ABC Test ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
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
May the 4th has become known as Star Wars Day given the movie franchise’s most famous tag line. Today provides an opportunity for us to examine a recent employment law development of massive significance—a great disturbance...more
My colleague Ashton Riley described it as the “contractor apocalypse.” As I said for an interview in the New York Times, “It’s a massive thing – definitely a game-changer that will force everyone to take a fresh look at the...more
A delivery driver for gig economy company DoorDash has been ordered by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to take his misclassification case to a private arbitrator instead of court pursuant to a valid arbitration agreement he...more
4/30/2018
/ American Arbitration Association ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Arbitrators ,
Class Certification ,
Collective Actions ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employment Contract ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Wage and Hour
In another victory for gig economy companies reliant upon the independent contractor business model, a Pennsylvania federal court ruled on April 11th that a collection of UberBLACK drivers were properly classified as...more
4/13/2018
/ Class Action ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Ridesharing ,
Right to Control ,
Uber ,
Wage and Hour
At the forefront of mind of every gig economy company is the troublesome question of whether its workers are properly classified as independent contractors. Just search our blog for cases involving “misclassification” and...more
3/23/2018
/ 1099s ,
ABC Test ,
Appeals ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Economic Realities Test ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Right to Control ,
W-2
We knew we hadn’t heard the end of this case, but yesterday it’s official: the worker who lost what is believed to be the nation’s first-ever gig economy misclassification trial last month has filed an appeal with the 9th...more