Uber and Lyft are set to face trial on Monday in a US lawsuit by Massachusetts’ attorney general alleging the ride-share companies misclassified their drivers as independent contractors rather than more costly employees.
The non-jury trial in Boston comes amid broader legal and political battles in the Democratic-led state and elsewhere nationally over the status of drivers for app-based companies whose rise has fueled the US gig worker economy. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell is asking a judge to conclude that drivers for Uber and Lyft are employees under state law and therefore entitled to benefits such as a minimum wage, overtime and earned sick time.
The companies warn that, should Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Peter Krupp rule against them, they would be unable to maintain their flexible business model in the state and may be forced to cut or cease operations in Massachusetts. Rohit Singla, a lawyer for Lyft, during a Thursday pre-trial hearing said his client’s “current business cannot support drivers as employees, is not set up for that and wouldn’t work that way.
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