Mass. AG announces lawsuit against Uber, Lyft

BOSTON — A win for rideshare drivers in their fight for employee rights. The Attorney General’s Office is moving forward with a lawsuit against Uber and Lyft.

"We're suing because these companies have built their billion-dollar businesses on a model that misclassifies drivers as independent contractors instead of employees," said Mass. Attorney General Maura Healy.

By listing drivers as contractors, the nearly 200,000 rideshare drivers are not protected under Massachusetts' Wage and Hour Law.

Felipe Martinez started driving for Uber and Lyft in 2017.

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"No matter how long we work, we receive no employee benefits and can be deactivated unfairly at any time with no recourse," Martinez explained.

The Attorney General wants the court to rule that those drivers are employees. AG Healy says Uber and Lyft do not meet the state's three-part test that would allow the rideshare companies to classify drivers as independent contractors.

In Massachusetts, to be considered an independent contractor and not an employee, employers must show the following:

• That workers are free from an employer's direction and control
• That services the workers perform are outside the usual course of their business
• That workers are engaged in an independently established trade, occupation or business of the same nature as the service performed for the party

"When I first started driving, I believed the lie. I thought I was an independent contractor with my own business, but Uber and Lyft controlled how I got paid, where I drove, and changed the terms and conditions whenever they wanted," Martinez said.

The AG’s office says Uber and Lyft penalize drivers for not accepting enough rides or canceling too many. Healy says the pandemic has put a spotlight on the lack of protections for rideshare drivers and how the rideshare companies are avoiding labor laws, costing the commonwealth hundreds of millions of dollars.

"Uber and Lyft have been getting a free ride for far too long," Healy said.

Other states, like California, have faced similar lawsuits to reclassify rideshare drivers as employees and not independent contractors but the AG’s office said, nationally, no court decision has been made to make that change.

Cox Media Group