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Ride-hailing giant Uber has lost another battle in the incendiary debate over whether or not its drivers should be considered employees.
Officials at California's Employment Development Department (EDD) recently determined that an ex-Uber driver qualified as an employee of the company, not an independent contractor, and as such was entitled to unemployment benefits. To be sure, it's one decision by one state agency and only applies to one individual. But an administrative law judge backed the decision on appeal, and Uber ultimately decided not to fight further.
“We disagreed with the decision, but since it only affects one person …we decided to focus on the bigger picture,” an Uber spokesperson tells WIRED. That bigger picture is a federal lawsuit filed against Uber that was granted class-action status earlier this month seeking to gain Uber drivers recognition as employees of the company, not independent contractors.
This latest decision is not the first time a state agency has determined an Uber driver was an employee. In May, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity found that Uber driver Darrin McGillis was an Uber employee and thus eligible for unemployment insurance. In June, the California Labor Commission, which investigates wage claims, decided that ex-Uber driver Barbara Ann Berwick was entitled to unpaid wages and reimbursement for business expenses in the nine weeks she worked as an Uber driver last year.
Shannon Liss-Riordan, the Boston lawyer who is representing the Uber drivers in the class-action suit against the company, has cited the California Labor Commission's decision in her arguments in court. She says this and other decisions by state agencies solidify her side's stance. “This California decision supports our argument that when a fact-finder sits down to look at the facts, and applies California laws, Uber drivers are employees,” Liss-Riordan says.
For its part, Uber says that other states have determined Uber drivers are independent contractors rather than employees of the company, including labor or unemployment boards in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Indiana, Texas, New York, Illinois, and California—where at least one decision, the company says, came from the EDD itself.
