Lyft can pay greater than $270 million in California wage theft settlement
The ride-hailing firm Lyft can pay $272.5 million to settle a California wage-and-hour lawsuit, marking the most important such settlement within the state’s historical past.
The settlement will resolve allegations that Lyft misclassified its staff as impartial contractors between 2016 and 2020 and denied them wage and office protections that have been required below state legislation on the time.
Eighty-seven p.c of the full settlement will go on to drivers.
“Lyft believes drivers have at all times been correctly labeled below the legislation, and we’re glad to place this case behind us,” the corporate stated in an announcement. “We stay laser centered on serving to create extra earnings for drivers and extra reasonably priced rides for riders.”
In 2020, California passed Proposition 22, which permits Lyft and Uber drivers to be labeled as contractors.
The California Labor Commissioner’s Office filed go well with in 2020 in Alameda County Superior Court, alleging that Lyft was not offering to its staff minimal wages and extra time, rest-break premiums, reimbursement for trade bills, correct wage statements, well timed wage funds and sick depart.
“If accepted, this settlement closes a chapter from a really completely different time, earlier than Prop 22,” Lyft stated. “The overwhelming majority of rideshare drivers in California have at all times wished to be impartial contractors, and voters affirmed that once they handed Prop 22 in 2020.”
The affiliation Rideshare Drivers United helped drivers file wage claims towards San Francisco-based Lyft by 2020, in response to the Labor Commissioner’s Office.
After being filed, the lawsuit turned a part of a coordinated continuing with actions introduced by the California Attorney General and the City Attorneys of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. The circumstances have been coordinated in San Francisco Superior Court in September 2021.
“This settlement is in regards to the staff who got here ahead and spoke up,” California Labor Commissioner Lilia García-Brower stated in an announcement. “We pursued this case to make sure office protections have actual which means and to get well as a lot as potential for drivers.”
The settlement comes lower than a month after Uber and Lyft drivers in California secured collective bargaining energy for the primary time with the certification of the California Gig Workers Union.
The passage of Assembly Bill 1340 final 12 months gave gig ride-hailing drivers the right to unionize and collectively cut price.
The California Public Employment Relations Board formally acknowledged the union in September after it secured support from 30% of lively drivers within the state in August.
