Earlier this month, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion reversing a lower court’s finding that UberBlack Drivers were “independent contractors” not entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay under federal and Pennsylvania law. In a case titled Razak v. Uber Technology, Inc., the appellate court (which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware) held that a jury should decide whether the company maintains the right to control several aspects of the drivers’ work and their opportunities for profit making the drivers “employees” entitled to minimum wage and overtime pay protections. A copy of the opinion is available here.
Companies often try to avoid many of the protections federal, state and local governments enact to protect workers from downturns in the economy by classifying them as non-employee “independent contractors.” These protections include, for example, minimum wage pay, overtime pay, unemployment pay, sick pay, and workers’ compensation protections.
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