“What I am an advocate for”, Crescimbeni said, “is an equal playing field”. And that is what USA court documents seem to show as well.
Advertisement
Lyft Inc. offered Wednesday to pay $27 million – more than double what the company had originally proposed – to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by California drivers who wanted to be classified as employees. The news comes after the failure of Proposition 1 on Saturday and the exit of ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft two days later.
However, the drivers continue to remain contractors as part of the new settlement agreement. According to court documents published Monday, drivers in in California and MA alone are entitled to roughly $730 million in reimbursements. Kristin Sverchek, general counsel of the company, said that the increased settlement proposal would benefit drivers and also help to preserve their tractability with regard to the time, place and duration of the journey on the platform. At the moment the driver hotline is just 8 to 5 but if callers dial 2-1-1 after hours they’ll still get the same services from the dispatcher if they ask for them. “Glad our Tech Bloc community was able to work with our city leaders to avoid this disaster”, the Tech Bloc poster wrote on Facebook. To reach a $93 billion valuation mark would mean expanding the business but with the status quo.
Uber has challenged the class certification in an appeals court, according to the Liss-Riordan, in defense of the settlement.
The deal also includes a provision that would prevent Lyft from kicking drivers off the app at will, and would allow drivers an opportunity to correct problem behavior before being booted.
Get Me is less than a year old and obtained its Austin transportation network company, or TNC, license in December, Laramy said.
There are some 40 other misclassification lawsuits pending.
The company, meanwhile, calculates damages at $429 million, mainly due to a lower mileage rate. “They must be making a lot of money here and with the Super Bowl here, I find it hard to believe they would pull out”.
Chhabria noted that lawyers in the case, when they negotiated the initial settlement in November, had estimated potential reimbursement for the drivers at $64 million. Companies aren’t required to pay work-related expenses for independent contractors as they would for employees.
Izzo has said her support is for a regulated industry.
Uber drivers may be settling for about 12% of the total amount they could have received at trial. Set their own schedule and earn more income?
While Uber remains the dominant player in the USA ridesharing market, Lyft has been putting up a good fight with the $62.5 billion company. But the state requires more expansive local legislation on the process than Rome now has in place.
Advertisement
While LA City Cab asserted in a February blog post that it does “everything possible to ensure customer satisfaction and safety, which are a number one priority”, it often does “nothing more than what local ordinances require regarding safety”, Uber said in a filing in San Francisco federal court.
