Uber Labor Lawsuit Expands, 160,000 Drivers Now Eligible for Inclusion

(TNS) -- Ride-share company Uber faced a vastly expanded lawsuit Tuesday after a US federal court Tuesday granted class action status to drivers who charge the company has misclassified them as independent contractors rather than employees. The original suit, O'Connor v. Uber Technologies, involved just four drivers who sued Uber in 2013 for reimbursement of certain expenses including gas and vehicle maintenance.

The decision by Judge Edward Chen of the US District Court in San Francisco opened the case to as many as 160,000 current and former Uber drivers who have worked for the company in California.

The case could have broad implications for the "sharing" economy, which is at present based on independent contractors earning money through web-based services that offer them little or no employment-style protections like pension contributions or health insurance.

"This case is going to have a major effect on not just Uber but all these businesses and business models," Saint Louis University law professor Miriam Cherry told the tech news website Ars Technica.

In a separate case in June, a California labour board ruled that an Uber driver was an employee, not a contractor. But that ruling applied only to that single driver.

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