Massachusetts takes Uber and Lyft to trial over status of gig workers
CNN
Uber and Lyft are set to face trial on Monday in a US lawsuit by Massachusetts’ attorney general alleging the ride-share companies misclassified their drivers as independent contractors rather than more costly employees.
Uber and Lyft are set to face trial on Monday in a US lawsuit by Massachusetts’ attorney general alleging the ride-share companies misclassified their drivers as independent contractors rather than more costly employees. The non-jury trial in Boston comes amid broader legal and political battles in the Democratic-led state and elsewhere nationally over the status of drivers for app-based companies whose rise has fueled the US gig worker economy. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell is asking a judge to conclude that drivers for Uber and Lyft are employees under state law and therefore entitled to benefits such as a minimum wage, overtime and earned sick time. Her office claims the companies for years misclassified thousands of Massachusetts drivers and cannot meet a three-part test under the state’s worker-friendly laws that would allow them to be deemed independent contractors. Studies have shown that using contractors can cost companies as much as 30% less than using employees. Uber (UBER) and Lyft (LYFT) argue that they properly classified the drivers, saying they are not transportation companies that employ drivers but technology companies whose apps facilitate connections between drivers and potential riders.
Thanksgiving dinner will cost less this year than last but will still be 19% higher than before the pandemic, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual Thanksgiving survey out Wednesday.
Comcast is planning to spin off most of its cable television networks, including MSNBC and CNBC, into a separate publicly traded company, according to executives with knowledge of the plan.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has sued a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee and the families of some of the Sandy Hook victims in an attempt to stop the sale of his media empire Infowars to the satirical news outlet The Onion.
The cat’s out of the bag: Jaguar has unveiled a new logo that emphasizes its posh pronunciation as it transitions into a “new era” that emphasizes its all-electric vehicle lineup.
Markets sold off Tuesday as geopolitical tensions escalated between Ukraine and Russia.
Protesters opposed to Tesla’s expansion of its plant near Berlin were holding out in trees Tuesday as German police sought to clear their forested camp.
Jersey Mike’s Subs is selling a significant stake to private equity giant Blackstone, ending its nearly seven-decade run as an independently owned business that transformed into a major competitor against well-entrenched competitors like Subway.
Walmart’s business is surging. Customers making more than $100,000 a year are fueling the growth.
The president-elect’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrations may backfire, driving up the cost of homebuying even further.
In the first quarter of this year, the price of bitcoin broke records in the wake of approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission for the first exchange-traded spot bitcoin funds. The cryptocurrency topped $70,000 in March, according to coinmarketcap.com.
Donald Trump is returning to the White House without many of the guardrails of his first term.