Start-up workers sue to be classified as "employees"

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com/en

Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com/en

It's not just Uber and Lyft feeling heat from workers in the startup world. Homejoy, an app inspired to be the Uber of affordable home cleaning, saw a lawsuit filed by workers alleging that they were improperly listed as contractors. 

The dispute over proper use of an independent contractor and an employee is nothing new. Many companies rely on contractors to keep expenses low.  When contractors are utilized correctly, they can keep a company running smoothly and efficiently.

However, this designation comes with a trade off -- companies may not have anywhere near as much control over a contractor's service, and the contractor can decide on when they want to work. It is apparent from reading plaintiff Diana Ventura's complaint that the startup founders may not have understood the concept of "employee" vs. "contractor" to the letter of the law.

From Diana Ventura's complaint:

"Cleaners are unable to provide any additional information before jobs are assigned. For example, a Cleaner cannot tell Homejoy that while she may have picked different zip codes or cities as part of her territory, she only wants to stay within one zip code, or within one small part of a zip code, each day. Instead, if a Cleaner chooses Oakland and San Francisco as part of her territory, Homejoy alone determines whether the cleaner will stay in Oakland on a given day, stay in San Francisco on a given day, or travel in between the two cities multiple times on a given day. Furthermore, Cleaners cannot tell Homejoy whether they want a little or a lot of down time between each job, or each job start time or end time. Cleaners cannot tell Homejoy how much driving they prefer to do, whether the jobs need to be near public transportation, whether the Cleaners prefer to be stuck in rush hour traffic or instead on routes that are reverse commutes, how many jobs the Cleaners want to perform each day, or whether or not they want to return to a previous customer."

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If you or anyone you know is victim of the dreaded Contractor vs. Employee debate, call the Rad Firm APC now at (310) 461-3766