Dive Brief:
- WeWork, a co-working startup, is being sued by an ex-employee for alleged unpaid overtime, wrongful termination and retaliation, according to BuzzFeed News.
- Tara Zoumer, formerly an associate community manager who supported some of WeWork’s Bay Area locations, alleges in her complaint that WeWork fired her because she discussed alleged violations of California’s Labor Code with co-workers, and she would not sign a new arbitration agreement given to all company workers in the fall.
- Among other things mentioned in her complaint, Zoumer believed signing the agreement would have “waived her jury trial rights to her pending disputes with WeWork.”
Dive Insight:
In this case, Zoumer says she is entitled to overtime and meal/rest breaks because she worked 50 to 60 hours per week and did tasks that were not typical for salaried employees. BuzzFeed News reports that the complaint says that Zoumer’s West Coast manager was not happy when Zoumer mentioned potential labor violations to co-workers three weeks before she was fired.
Zoumer’s lawyer, Ramsey Hanafi, told BuzzFeed News this type of misclassification, for non-technical employees, makes people like his client especially vulnerable. “Since so many tech jobs are ‘office jobs’ or have higher salaries, or fancy meaningless titles, a lot of employees get misclassified,” Hanafi explained to BuzzFeed News via email.
WeWork's official response came via an emailed statement, which said Zoumer "was terminated for failing to comply with company policies and procedures. We will contest this meritless lawsuit vigorously.”
Zoumer's case comes while the DOL is still in the process of creating a new set of controversial worker classification overtime rules, which are expected to have a dramatic impact on certain work sectors, mainly hospitality and retail.
WeWork was recently valued at about $17B and has more than 50 shared office space locations around the world, according to BuzzFeed News.
