Uber and Lyft Drivers Sue for New York Unemployment Benefits

Doh Ouattara drove for Uber and Lyft from 2016 until mid-March of this year, when he became concerned about the pandemic. With three children under 6 to provide for, he decided to apply for unemployment benefits.

But despite hundreds of calls to the New York State Department of Labor and two prominent rulings that deemed gig workers like him to be employees eligible for the state’s unemployment insurance, he has yet to receive any payment, and time is running short.

Mr. Ouattara, who was trained as an accountant in the Ivory Coast before moving to the United States, could afford to pay only half his rent in April and none of it this month. “My savings are almost gone — I’ve used them for food, basic necessities,” he said in an interview. “It is getting very, very stressful.”

On Monday, Mr. Ouattara and three other Uber and Lyft drivers, along with an advocacy group called the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, filed a complaint in federal court against Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and the state’s Department of Labor, saying drivers were not paid standard benefits to which they were entitled in a timely way.

The action comes at a time when drivers have been increasingly vocal in demanding the protections afforded to employees, which states like New York and California have granted them to varying degrees, even as the companies continue to maintain that drivers are contractors.

The lawsuit says drivers must wait months to receive standard unemployment benefits, if they receive them at all, compared with the two to three weeks that the state has said is typical for other workers. The plaintiffs are seeking an injunction requiring the state to immediately pay their benefits and the benefits of other drivers to whom they are owed.

“The issue of Uber driver employment status has been settled for over a year by the state’s own decision,” said Zubin Soleimany, a lawyer for the taxi workers group. “But it hasn’t been able to provide people benefits when they need them. It’s been a catastrophe for these guys.”

Jack Sterne, a spokesman for the Cuomo administration, said, “During this pandemic emergency, we have been moving heaven and earth to get every single unemployed New Yorker their benefits as quickly as possible — including Uber and Lyft drivers, who are treated no different than any other worker.”

According to the lawsuit, a key problem is that the state has not forced companies like Uber and Lyft to provide the data on workers’ earnings that employers must typically supply. Lacking such data, the suit says, the state has required drivers to complete a lengthy application process that involves more steps and paperwork than other workers face to receive standard unemployment benefits.

Josh Gold, an Uber spokesman, said the company had provided the state with the earnings data it had requested, though he declined to elaborate on whether the data would be sufficient to calculate unemployment benefits promptly. The company said in April that it had agreed to comply with a state request for earnings data, but that it had not yet done so.

Lyft said the company was working with the state to provide access to earnings data. “The special interests behind this lawsuit aren’t interested in what’s best for drivers, since filing this lawsuit will do nothing to help them get assistance quickly,” said Julie Wood, a Lyft spokeswoman.

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Uber and Lyft have encouraged drivers to apply for benefits under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which Congress passed in March to replace income for out-of-work contractors and other workers who might fall through the gaps in the safety net.

Under federal rules, only those ineligible for traditional unemployment benefits are supposed to receive pandemic assistance. But even though New York and California consider many drivers to be employees eligible for traditional benefits, the states are helping drivers obtain the pandemic assistance, arguing that it is often the fastest way for them to receive financial support.

New York State introduced a single benefits application on April 20 that routes workers into traditional unemployment benefits or pandemic assistance, depending on which program the state considers them eligible for.

Lyft said that pandemic assistance was a better deal for many part-time drivers, because the minimum payment under that program was higher than the minimum unemployment benefit.

But for full-time drivers, pandemic assistance can be a weak substitute for traditional unemployment benefits. The complaint calculates that Mr. Ouattara’s benefit under the pandemic assistance program would be less than $250 a week, compared with $504 that he would receive in unemployment benefits. (He and other drivers would receive a $600-a-week federal supplement on top of either program through the end of July.)

The difference arises because pandemic assistance is based on income net of expenses like gas and maintenance, whereas unemployment benefits are based on gross earnings — or about $26,000 versus about $55,500 for Mr. Ouattara in 2019. Other drivers face similar disparities, according to the complaint.

Mr. Ouattara said he received a notice from the state this month indicating it had no record of earnings for him from Uber or Lyft. After he sent the state his documentation, he said, it urged him to apply for pandemic assistance. He did so, but continues to pursue traditional unemployment benefits as well. A second plaintiff in the case received a notice last week saying he was approved for pandemic assistance, but he continues to press for conventional unemployment benefits.


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  • Frequently Asked Questions and Advice

    Updated May 26, 2020

    • How can I protect myself while flying?

      If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)

    • What are the symptoms of coronavirus?

      Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.

    • How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.?

      Over 38 million people have filed for unemployment since March. One in five who were working in February reported losing a job or being furloughed in March or the beginning of April, data from a Federal Reserve survey released on May 14 showed, and that pain was highly concentrated among low earners. Fully 39 percent of former workers living in a household earning $40,000 or less lost work, compared with 13 percent in those making more than $100,000, a Fed official said.

    • Is ‘Covid toe’ a symptom of the disease?

      There is an uptick in people reporting symptoms of chilblains, which are painful red or purple lesions that typically appear in the winter on fingers or toes. The lesions are emerging as yet another symptom of infection with the new coronavirus. Chilblains are caused by inflammation in small blood vessels in reaction to cold or damp conditions, but they are usually common in the coldest winter months. Federal health officials do not include toe lesions in the list of coronavirus symptoms, but some dermatologists are pushing for a change, saying so-called Covid toe should be sufficient grounds for testing.

    • Should I wear a mask?

      The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing.

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      If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

    • How can I help?

      Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities using a numbers-based system, has a running list of nonprofits working in communities affected by the outbreak. You can give blood through the American Red Cross, and World Central Kitchen has stepped in to distribute meals in major cities.


Other drivers who believe they are employees have sought traditional unemployment benefits rather than pandemic assistance as well, but have encountered problems similar to those of Mr. Ouattara and his fellow plaintiffs.

Carole Vigne, a staff attorney for the nonprofit Legal Aid at Work, said she had represented Uber and Lyft drivers during the pandemic who received traditional unemployment benefits in California in about six weeks. But she said that some of her clients there were still waiting for benefits they applied for more than two months ago, and that some had been routed to the pandemic assistance program with no explanation, despite intending to apply for traditional benefits.

Crystal Page, a spokeswoman for California’s labor agency, said in an email, “There are a number of different scenarios that apply to ALL benefit claims which could determine how quickly a claim can get processed and paid if the individual is eligible.”

The New York lawsuit, brought with the help of the nonprofit group Legal Services NYC, cites two state decisions that found drivers eligible for unemployment benefits. The first was a 2018 ruling of the state’s unemployment insurance appeal board, the final authority on eligibility questions in the executive branch, which found that three Uber drivers and all “similarly situated” drivers were eligible for benefits.

The second was a ruling involving Postmates, an app-based delivery service, which found the company’s workers to be employees for purposes of unemployment benefits. The ruling did not apply to Uber and Lyft directly, but strongly suggested employee status for their drivers given the similarity of their business models to Postmates’.

The lawsuit by Mr. Soleimany’s group argues that by failing to pay standard unemployment benefits to drivers in a timely way, the state is violating the “when due” provision of the federal Social Security Act, which requires states to ensure the full payment of benefits “with the greatest promptness that is administratively feasible.”

The suit further argues that the state is violating the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution by typically paying employees who are not drivers their standard benefits on a two-to-three-week timetable, but taking months to pay app-based drivers.

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