Former Uber technology Inc and Lyft Inc drivers in Austin, Texas, on Thursday accused the ride-hailing groups of breaking a federal regulation with the aid of unexpectedly halting operations in the city after voters subsidized a degree requiring them to fingerprint drivers.
The lawsuits filed in federal court in San Francisco, in which the companies are based totally, stated Uber and Lyft violated a regulation that calls for businesses to provide 60 days word to employees earlier than a “mass layoff.”
Uber spokesman Matt Kallman declined to remark. Lyft did now not reply to a request for comment.
The agencies suspended offerings in Austin on may also nine, two days after residents voted to keep the metropolis’s regulation requiring Uber and Lyft, just like taxi organizations, to conduct fingerprint-primarily based background checks of their drivers. approximately 10,000 Uber and Lyft drivers lost their jobs, Uber said on the time.
The corporations don’t forget drivers to be impartial contractors, and Thursday’s lawsuits are the modern day to assert they’re genuinely personnel underneath numerous federal and state legal guidelines due to the degree of control Uber and Lyft exert.
They appeared to be the primary instances against the agencies brought under the 1988 worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which changed into designed to provide employees time to regulate to the loss of employment.
corporations that violate the law, which includes an exception for “unforeseeable commercial enterprise occasions,” are at the hook for wages and blessings workers might have earned at some point of the 60-day note period.
The court cases said the named plaintiffs, who are looking for to represent lessons of Uber and Lyft drivers from Austin, had been not able to make up for the lack of income.
Drivers across the united states of america have sued Uber and Lyft claiming the corporations misclassified them as independent contractors and deprived them of extra time pay, suggestions, reimbursements and positive employment protections.
In April, Uber agreed to pay as much as $a hundred million to 350,000 drivers in California and Massachusetts to settle claims that it owed them compensation for gas and mileage and withheld recommendations.
Lyft has proposed a $27 million agreement of a comparable case related to California drivers. Federal judges in San Francisco ultimate week held hearings to do not forget both settlements.
The instances in US District court docket for the Northern District of California are Johnston v. Uber technologies Inc, No. three:sixteen-cv-03134, and Thornton v. Lyft Inc, No. three:sixteen-cv-03135.