Uber battles driver class action

Kaja Whitehouse | USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Uber Technologies is battling efforts by a handful of drivers to sue the ride-hailing company on behalf of the company's entire California fleet.

Thursday, Uber asked a San Francisco federal judge to reject the request by the drivers — Douglas O'Connor, Thomas Colopy, Matthew Manahan and Elie Gurfinkel — to try their case as a class-action.

The drivers are suing Uber on the grounds that they should be labeled employees and not as independent contractors, an issue that goes to the heart of how Uber conducts business.

The San Francisco start-up has long kept its expenses down by claiming that it's merely a technology company matching drivers with riders, not a car service company with vehicles to maintain.

Under this arrangement, Uber's drivers take on the burden of expenses such as maintenance, insurance, gas and the vehicles themselves. If Uber is forced to treat drivers as employees, it could be forced to bear some of those costs as well as Social Security, workers compensation and other benefits.

In its filing Thursday, lawyers for Uber argued the claims of the drivers who filed the lawsuit don't reflect all of their peers and therefore should not be granted class-action status. Uber cited statements from 400 drivers who have told the company they prefer the flexibility being an independent contractor provides.

Driver Selenge Thompson, for example, was cited as having told Uber that she left corporate work "to be an independent contractor with Uber, so she would never again have to "miss out on so many of (her) daughter's firsts," Uber said.

"Plaintiffs are taking positions directly contrary to the desires of many of the very people they claim to represent — who do not want to be employees and view Uber as having liberated them from traditional employment," Uber said.

In March, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen ordered the case face a trial by jury.

If the lawsuit is allowed to proceed as part of a larger class, the drivers would be battling their case on behalf of Uber's 160,000 past and current California drivers — and not just themselves. A win, therefore, would have much greater implications for Uber's business model and its $40 billion valuation.

Last month, California's Labor Commission awarded Barbara Berwick, a former driver, $4,152 after it determined she was an employee, not an independent contractor. Uber has said it will appeal the ruling even though the ruling does not impact other drivers.