Court rules against Uber in win for California workers

The highest court in California has ruled that Uber must face a class-action lawsuit claiming that it should have covered work-related expenses for UberEats driver

The landmark ruling, delivered unanimously by the California Supreme Court, found that driver Erik Adolph did not give up his right under state law to sue on behalf of a large group of workers, despite signing an agreement to bring his own work-related legal claims in private arbitration rather than litigation.

Adolph had sued Uber in 2019 over its allegedly misclassification of drivers as independent contractors rather than employees. In this case, he has claimed that drivers should be reimbursed

The ruling affects more than half of non-union private sector workers in the US, who are required to sign agreements similar to Adolph’s, and could open companies in the state up to more large-scale lawsuits. However, Uber lawyer Theane Evangelis argued in a statement on 17 July that the ruling conflicts with a decision made by the US Supreme Court in 2022 involving Viking River Cruises, which found that companies could force individual PAGA claims into arbitration.

“We are considering our appellate options,” she said