On February 8, 2023, A Place for Rover, Inc. (“Rover” or the “Company”) agreed to pay $18 million to resolve allegations that the Company unlawfully misclassified its hourly workers as independent contractors in order to skirt certain minimum wage and benefit laws. Rover is an app-based platform where users can connect with and book dog sitters or walkers. The Rover app includes dog boarding, dog walking, house sitting and doggy…
On December 14, 2022, the honorable Samuel H. Mays, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee granted final approval to the settlement (“Settlement”) of a class action lawsuit against freight and trucking business Comtrak Logistics, Inc. (“Comtrak” or “Defendant”). The Court previously granted preliminary approval to the Settlement on July 21, 2022. The nine-year litigation accused Comtrak (presently known as Hub Group Inc.) of misclassifying its…
On November 4, 2022, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that for the purposes of the Fair Labor Stands Act (“FLSA”), Los Angeles County (the “County”) qualifies as a joint employer of In-Home Supportive Services (“IHSS”) providers and is therefore liable for failing to pay overtime compensation, partially reversing the Central District of California’s summary judgment order in favor of the…
On December 16th, 2022, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry’s Joint Task Force on Misclassification of Employees (“Joint Task Force”) held its twelfth meeting of the year. The Joint Task Force was created when Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed Act 85 into law in October 2020, which called for the creation of a Joint Task Force to be composed of seven members (or their designees) and chaired by the…
On August 3, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a Wisconsin federal court’s dismissal of a truck driver’s misclassification claims against hauling company Schneider National Inc. (“Schneider” or “the Company”). The Seventh Circuit found that driver Eric Brant (“Plaintiff”) plausibly alleged a viable claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), a federal law that protects workers from unfair employment practices by establishing requirements for minimum…
On November 18th, 2022, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry’s Joint Task Force on Misclassification of Employees (“Joint Task Force”) held its eleventh meeting of the year. The Joint Task Force, composed of seven members (or their designees) and chaired by the Secretary of Labor & Industry, was formed in October 2020 to evaluate the status of worker misclassification in Pennsylvania and develop recommendations to present to the Pennsylvania General Assembly.…
On November 10, 2022, the Ninth Circuit denied the request of Jan-Pro Franchising International Inc. (“Jan-Pro”) to review the United States District Court for the Northern District of California’s August 2, 2022 order granting a group of janitors class action certification in a lawsuit alleging Jan-Pro misclassified its janitors as independent contractors. The action began in 2008 when a group of janitors sued Jan-Pro in Massachusetts federal court. After the case was…
On October 13, 2022, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding a new standard for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The proposed rule, entitled “Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act,” would create a six-factor framework for classifying workers as employees or…
On October 28th, 2022, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry’s Joint Task Force on Misclassification of Employees (“Joint Task Force”) held its tenth meeting of the year. The Joint Task Force was created when Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed Act 85 into law in October 2020, which called for the creation of a Joint Task Force to be composed of seven members (or their designees) and chaired by the…
On October 11, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the Central District of California’s denial of a motion for a preliminary injunction to restrain the California Attorney General from applying California’s “ABC test,” as codified in California’s Assembly Bill 5 (“AB 5”), to political canvassers. Under precedent established in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, 4 Cal. 5th 903 (2018) to prove workers are…