Today I woke up to a slew of e-mails, Facebook messages and Tweets about Uber’s new driver-partner agreement that was sent out to all drivers early this morning.  In short, it’s a 21 page PDF that you will need to agree to in order to go online and drive the next time you sign in.

I would read the document carefully, but in case you want the cliff notes, I’ve been researching all morning and will update this article accordingly as soon as I get more information.

Here’s a link to the document if you’d like to read it: Uber’s New Driver-Partner Agreement

Uber New Partner-Driver Agreement

The part that stands out to me is all the way down on Page 15 where it talks about arbitration.  On Wednesday, Uber lost a HUGE ruling in the employee misclassification lawsuit that basically opened up the class action lawsuit to all drivers in California (and potentially all drivers in the US).  This latest partner agreement is obviously a clear response to losing that motion in court since, if you sign this new agreement, you will not be able to participate in any past, current or future class action lawsuits. [Read more…]

Update (12/11/2015): Uber recently sent out an updated partner agreement in response to the latest ruling in this case.  Make sure you check out our latest article: Should Drivers Opt Out of Uber’s New Driver-Partner Agreement?

Harry here.  We’ve been following the Uber Misclassification Lawsuit closely over the past year, and today RSG contributor Christian Perea shares an important update with you.  

If you’d like to learn more or get some background on the case, make sure you listen to our interview with Shannon Liss-Riordan on the podcast, who is the attorney representing Uber drivers in this case.

And here’s some more background we’ve written:

• Would Drivers Be Better Off As Employees?

Uber Driver Lawsuit Update: Why This Ruling Could Affect 160,000+ Uber Drivers

On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen expanded the scope of the potential damages and participants in the case that seeks to reclassify Uber Drivers as employees instead of contractors. Previously, Judge Chen had ruled that only a narrow number of California Uber drivers who had not opted out of Uber’s arbitration and driven before May of 2014 would qualify for the class action suit (basically nobody).

If you’re a driver in CA, you may remember being forced to opt in to this arbitration clause in order to be able to go online all the way back in 2014.  It’s kind of shady how Uber makes drivers agree to new service fees and these types of agreements before going online, so regardless of your position on the case, we’re glad to see the judge recognize this. In fact, this is what is known as forced mandatory arbitration and it is vehemently opposed by consumer groups as it passes the costs of litigation on to the consumer. [Read more…]

In case you’re unaware, there is a massive legal battle going on right now between Uber and three of its drivers in California.  On the surface, that might not seem like a big deal but these three drivers could ultimately change the way Uber’s entire business model operates if they are successful with this lawsuit.

At stake, is the vaunted ‘independent contractor’ classification that Uber and most other on demand companies apply to their workforce.  It’s estimated that companies like Uber save up to 30 percent of payroll tax costs by classifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees.  And when you have a few hundred thousand employees, that’s a whole lot of cash at stake.

Would Uber Drivers Be Better Off As Employees?

[Read more…]