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posted by takyon on Sunday August 27 2017, @01:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the get-your-grubby-hands-off-me dept.

"This is the first case in California as to how the gig economy works," US Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Corley said during the Thursday hearing, likely the last hearing before the September 5 bench trial, which is expected to last about a week. Most of the hearing was taken up establishing procedural ground rules and wrapping up loose threads about witness availability, among other items.

This lawsuit just might provide an answer. If Grubhub must treat its drivers as employees, the employees would be entitled to all kinds of benefits, including unemployment, insurance, and reimbursement for various expenses, like gas and employee phone bills. In short, treating workers as employees could cost companies like Grubhub millions of dollars.

The case, known as Lawson v. Grubhub, which was first filed back in 2015, is one of a slew of ongoing cases filed against so-called "gig economy" firms. During the Thursday hearing, the judge said that she had only recently understood that, in this context, "gig" simply was slang for "job" or work. She seemingly was under the impression that it was related to the tech prefix "giga."

[...] "This trial is a milestone because similar cases have settled or been dismissed," Michael LeRoy, a labor law professor at the University of Illinois, e-mailed Ars. "When cases settle, the wage-and-hour laws are not applied and interpreted by courts—and therefore, it's hard to say for sure how the law is adapting to the rapid changes in gig work."

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @04:35AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2017, @04:35AM (#559707)

    The problem with this view is that the 'gig economy' has companies that are mostly completely tangential to the service. Uber, for instance, could be decentralized. You could have strong public record of who drives and picks up and the rides are only started once the driver/passenger quickly photo one another and a biometric analysis verifies both identities (passenger verifies driver, driver verifies passenger). I do think the companies serve a useful purpose, but that purpose is mostly tangential to the product provided. In a way they act more like a quasi-government arbiter (handling disputes, dealing with burdensome regulations, etc) than a private employer.