Dive Brief:
- Several media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, are reporting that on-demand food delivery services GrubHub, DoorDash and Caviar have been hit with lawsuits this past week alleging that they misclassified their delivery drivers as independent contractors.
- According to the LA Times, the complaints were filed in San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of the delivery drivers by Boston attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, who is also representing plaintiffs in similar lawsuits against on-demand transportation companies Uber and Lyft. A federal judge in San Francisco certified the lawsuit against Uber for class action last month.
- The complaints filed against GrubHub and DoorDash are both class actions, while the Caviar complaint is a demand for arbitration on behalf of a San Francisco driver, reports the LA Times.
Dive Insight:
It's yet another battle to eventually decide the independent contractor vs. employee classification war. According to one of the complaints, the Times reports that GrubHub treated its delivery drivers as employees but failed to provide any of the benefits, including expense reimbursements for gas, parking and phone data, meeting minimum wage requirements and paying drivers for overtime.
“For all of these cases, we’re also representing drivers individually, including filing individual arbitrations where necessary,” Liss-Riordan said via email to the LA Times.
In terms of impact on HR, these cases continue to force sharing economy employers to reconsider their business models and shine a light on the growing use of contractors throughout the country.
