Apart from the ongoing class-action lawsuit filed against Uber in September, the ride-hailing company just got another source of headache to handle. The group of drivers excluded by the judge -- who worked through limo companies and the ones who used aliases -- have now filed for a separate lawsuit against Uber.
The judge ruling points out that the drivers who signed up for Uber directly while using their real identities have a different situation from the group which used false names.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the latest lawsuit was filed in San Francisco’ Superior Court by Atty. Shannon Liss-Riordan -- as she was appointed by the excluded drivers to make the legal charges official on their behalf.
Riordan is the same lawyer who represents the plaintiffs in the class action. Her second case against Uber has similar “arguments to the original lawsuit”, according to the publication.
The lawsuit is accusing Uber for misclassification, citing that they have been treating the other drivers with aliases as independent contractors. By doing such, Uber is allegedly “stripping them of rights such as business-expense reimbursements and gratuities”.
According to Forbes, the original lawsuit was filed on behalf of three Uber drivers last September. However, the suit developed into a class-action when a California judge ruled that it should cover all drivers in the state.
On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times learned that the class-action has been ruled to expand by US District Judge Edward Chen.
Previously, the suit only claims to cover drivers who didn’t accept arbitration agreements from Uber. With this latest development, the new ruling now states that class-action will include drivers from UberBlack, UberX and UberSUV.
The tech company said in September that a potential 160,000 California drivers would be eligible to be part of the class. It’s yet to be determined whether this number will increase following Judge Chen’s ruling.
Uber has not yet released a statement addressing the second misclassification lawsuit filed this month.
