# Uber to pay $20M settlement to drivers, which one expert sees as 'mostly a win for Uber'



## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...-drivers-which-one-expert-sees-mostly-n982561
March 12, 2019, 9:47 PM EDT / Updated March 12, 2019, 10:53 PM EDT
By Cyrus Farivar

Uber will pay $20 million to its drivers in California and Massachusetts to settle a class-action lawsuit that raised the question of what responsibility the company has to its workers.

Lawyers for Uber said in a court filing Tuesday that they had agreedto a settlement with thousands of drivers. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen is set to hear the two sides' motion on the preliminary settlement on March 21 in his San Francisco courtroom. Ultimately he will decide whether the settlement can go forward.

While the deal won't end the longstanding and thorny question of whether Uber's drivers are employees or contractors, the settlement likely will resolve the lawsuit that has forcefully pushed this question into court.

Numerous gig-economy companies including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart save millions of dollars annually by not classifying drivers and delivery people - the backbone of their workforce - as employees.

The companies do not pay health insurance, retirement, unemployment or other benefits that many traditional employees expect.Uber uses the phrase "driver-partners" to refer to most of its workers.

The lawsuit, O'Connor v. Uber, has been pending in federal court since it was brought in August 2013 and argued that thousands of drivers had been misclassified as contractors and were improperly denied business expense reimbursement.

The new settlement covers approximately 11,000 drivers in California and 2,600 in Massachusetts who will collectively receive the $20 million.

According to a Monday court filing, the "average net settlement share" will be $2,206 per driver after attorneys' fees, more than five times what had been proposed three years ago.

"Under this settlement, we estimate these drivers will receive approximately 37 cents per mile for the miles they have driven for Uber (depending on the exact claim rate)," Shannon Liss-Riordan, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, said in an email to NBC News on Tuesday.

"This is a substantial recovery, given that the IRS reimbursement rate has varied between 50 and 58 cents per mile."

Drivers not covered by this deal who want to recover money will have to bring a private claim via arbitration, a private quasi-legal process that is criticized by labor groups for favoring corporations over individuals.

Noah Edwardsen, an Uber spokesperson, declined to respond to NBC News' specific questions about the settlement.

"Uber has changed a lot since 2013," the company said in a statement. "We have made the driver experience even better through improvements like in-app tipping, a redesigned driver app, an innovative injury protection insurance option, and new rewards programs like Uber Pro. We're pleased to reach a settlement on this matter and we'll continue working hard to improve the quality, security and dignity of independent work."

The two sides nearly reached a settlement in 2016 that covered far more drivers. The case was eventually appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017, where it was finally sent back down to the lower district court.

Liss-Riordan said that the settlement was not the end of the legal battle over gig economy workers.

"This is not the end of the issue of driver classification," Liss-Riordan said. "We are continuing to pursue many cases against gig-economy companies (and others) that are misclassifying their workers as independent contractors, in order to save on labor costs and shift the risks and expenses of operating a business to their low-wage workers."

*"MOSTLY A WIN FOR UBER"*
Legal experts say that Uber's impending initial public offering likely brought pressure to settle the case.

Uber and its largest rival, Lyft, are both set to go public later this year. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission released earlier this month, Lyft stated that there may be more "regulatory scrutiny" on tech companies that have so many "independent contractors," and that new laws may be "adverse to our business."

According to Veena Dubal, a labor law professor at the University of California, Hastings in San Francisco, Uber is "incentivized to get out from under potentially impactful legal decisions."

But, she observed, Uber has been successful in staving off what could have been more financial damage.

"Since the near-settlement three years ago, the class of drivers has been seriously undermined by higher courts," Dubal said in an email.

The class has gone from 400,000 drivers to almost 14,000.

"The value of the settlement itself is really hard to assess," Dubal said. "Of course, if the drivers won at trial, especially on the reimbursement expenses, they would have the potential to make much more."

Michael LeRoy, a labor law professor at the University of Illinois, said that this was a relatively easy way for the company to end a lengthy lawsuit that could have dragged on for years. Plus, in the end, $20 million is a very small amount for a company reported to be worth about $120 billion.

"I rate this as mostly a win for Uber," LeRoy said in an email. "The monetary settlement is a small fraction of their potential liability, and their business model of utilizing drivers as independent contractors remains intact."

----------------------------------


> The settlement is a fraction of what Uber could have been required to pay, a labor expert said, and its "business model of utilizing drivers" as contractors not employees stays intact.


The biggest part of this story is ...



> "Under this settlement, we estimate these drivers will receive approximately 37 cents per mile for the miles they have driven for Uber (depending on the exact claim rate)," Shannon Liss-Riordan, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, said in an email to NBC News on Tuesday.


My settlement offer was substantially less per mile. I hope I get the .37 instead. Gonna be interesting to see how it's actually going to work out.

https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-uber-drivers-settlement-20190312-story.html


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

I have only received an email from Liss-Riordan saying that I "may receive approximately 37 cents per mile". 

What amount per mile were you offered?


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## Drivincrazy (Feb 14, 2016)

Two states down...48 to go.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

The Gift of Fish said:


> I have only received an email from Liss-Riordan saying that I "may receive approximately 37 cents per mile".
> 
> What amount per mile were you offered?


Obviously I can't talk about the specifics of a supposedly confidential settlement. When did you receive that particular email ?


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## Mr. G (Sep 4, 2016)

If I'm not mistaken, .11 cents for drivers for group arbitration, .37 cents for drivers who "opted out" of arbitration and were set to file for individual filing for arbitration.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

Mr. G said:


> If I'm not mistaken, .11 cents for drivers for group arbitration, .37 cents for drivers who "opted out" of arbitration and were set to file for individual filing for arbitration.


you can't group together in arbitration


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## Mr. G (Sep 4, 2016)

uberdriverfornow said:


> you can't group together in arbitration


I don't know then. Another driver (friend of mine) received paperwork for the .11 cents per mile about a month ago.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

uberdriverfornow said:


> Obviously I can't talk about the specifics of a supposedly confidential settlement. When did you receive that particular email ?


Lol, there's nothing confidential about it - NBC posted that it's up to 37 cents per mile. I got the email yesterday.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

The Gift of Fish said:


> Lol, there's nothing confidential about it - NBC posted that it's up to 37 cents per mile. I got the email yesterday.


the offer we received in december is supposed to remain confidential, according to the terms

it doesn't sound like you are an actual member or the class, as i already assumed


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

uberdriverfornow said:


> the offer we received in december is supposed to remain confidential, according to the terms
> 
> it doesn't sound like you are an actual member or the class, as i already assumed


Posts partial details of his proposed settlement... then claims that his offer is confidential. -o: Lol, ok genius.

There is no reason to respect Liss Riordan's request for us to keep settlement details confidential - we are not bound by any non-disclosure agreement as far as I am aware. On the contrary, it is beneficial for drivers to share info when dealing with lawyers. They are not on our side; they are on their side.

And, as you posted, NBC has somehow already got hold of the settlement terms so it's no longer a secret anyway. It's not really worth ruffling your skirts over. I will be posting my settlement amount as soon as I know what it is, as I have done with all of the other lawsuits against UberLyft.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

The Gift of Fish said:


> Posts partial details of his proposed settlement... then claims that his offer is confidential. -o: Lol, ok genius.
> 
> There is no reason to respect Liss Riordan's request for us to keep settlement details confidential - we are not bound by any non-disclosure agreement as far as I am aware. On the contrary, it is beneficial for drivers to share info when dealing with lawyers. They are not on our side; they are on their side.
> 
> And, as you posted, NBC has somehow already got hold of the settlement terms so it's no longer a secret anyway. It's not really worth ruffling your skirts over. I will be posting my settlement amount as soon as I know what it is, as I have done with all of the other lawsuits against UberLyft.


yeah, nice try

it's pretty clear you are trolling

and i haven't posted any details


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

uberdriverfornow said:


> and i haven't posted any details





> My settlement offer was substantially less per mile. I hope I get the .37 instead.


I hear that vitamins are good for short term memory loss - you might want to stock up!


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## TwoFiddyMile (Mar 13, 2015)

$20 mil is a good start.
Chip chip chip...


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

The Gift of Fish said:


> I hear that vitamins are good for short term memory loss - you might want to stock up!


exactly how much did i say my offer was for ?

I'll wait


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

uberdriverfornow said:


> exactly how much did i say my offer was for ?
> 
> I'll wait


k.......

I can't see much point starting a thread to purportedly discuss Uber's settlement and then saying that it can't be discussed because it's confidential. -o:

Anyway, as I said, it's good for drivers to communicate with each other regarding these legal cases and their settlements. There's no reason to obey Liss Riordan and not discuss them just because she says so. NBC and other media don't agree with her that the settlement is confidential and neither do I. But I guess you're just being obedient and doing what you're told; and that's ok.

Once the settlement administrator starts getting in touch, I will start a new thread for us to discuss settlement amounts in. You're welcome to abstain from participating in it, of course, in case this forum is read by the KGB/North Koreans/Illuminati or whoever else isn't allowed to see the details.


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## ValleyAntMan (Mar 14, 2019)

The settlement offer for arbitration drivers was posted all over the internet the weekend before Christmas and was for 11 cents per mile. The new offer is only for the 11,000 drivers in California and 2,600 in Massachusetts that opted out of arbitration when they were given the chance. I received an email about it yesterday morning and found three online articles about it by the afternoon, including the New York Times. I found the documents that were actually filed in the court on the Scribd website today and now it's on the NBC website, so I don't think this qualifies as a big secret. If you opted out, and I assume you know whether or not you did, just multiply your total paid miles (which are on your tax documents for each year) up to February 28th of this year by .37 to get an idea of what your settlement might look like. Drivers that opted out and have driven lots of paid miles will be well-rewarded, as far as I can see. If you've done 100,000 paid miles, for example, your payout would be $37,000. Most of us will get much less. That's not chump change, in my opinion. The big questions are whether or not the judge will approve the settlement (he'll hear arguments next Thursday at 1:30 pm), whether the 37 cents per paid mile is before or after legal fees (which are 25% of the $20,000,000), and whether there is a cap on the number of paid miles that can be paid. The 2016 settlement that was rejected by the judge was for 32 cents per mile but was capped at 25,000 paid miles, with 25% of the payout delayed until after the IPO. So this offer sounds a lot better to me.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

ValleyAntMan said:


> The settlement offer for arbitration drivers was posted all over the internet the weekend before Christmas and was for 11 cents per mile. The new offer is only for the 11,000 drivers in California and 2,600 in Massachusetts that opted out of arbitration when they were given the chance. I received an email about it yesterday morning and found three online articles about it by the afternoon, including the New York Times. I found the documents that were actually filed in the court on the Scribd website today and now it's on the NBC website, so I don't think this qualifies as a big secret. If you opted out, and I assume you know whether or not you did, just multiply your total paid miles (which are on your tax documents for each year) up to February 28th of this year by .37 to get an idea of what your settlement might look like. Drivers that opted out and have driven lots of paid miles will be well-rewarded, as far as I can see. If you've done 100,000 paid miles, for example, your payout would be $37,000. Most of us will get much less. That's not chump change, in my opinion. The big questions are whether or not the judge will approve the settlement (he'll hear arguments next Thursday at 1:30 pm), whether the 37 cents per paid mile is before or after legal fees (which are 25% of the $20,000,000), and whether there is a cap on the number of paid miles that can be paid. The 2016 settlement that was rejected by the judge was for 32 cents per mile but was capped at 25,000 paid miles, with 25% of the payout delayed until after the IPO. So this offer sounds a lot better to me.


it definitely sounds possible that this particular settlement only refers to the drivers that opted out



The Gift of Fish said:


> k.......
> 
> I can't see much point starting a thread to purportedly discuss Uber's settlement and then saying that it can't be discussed because it's confidential. -o:
> 
> ...


there are basically two classes, those that opted out and those that didn't...those that didn't opt out are likely going to get less


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

ValleyAntMan said:


> I received an email about it yesterday morning and found three online articles about it by the afternoon, including the New York Times. I found the documents that were actually filed in the court on the Scribd website today and now it's on the NBC website, so I don't think this qualifies as a big secret. If you opted out, and I assume you know whether or not you did, just multiply your total paid miles (which are on your tax documents for each year) up to February 28th of this year by .37 to get an idea of what your settlement might look like.


Yes, drivers should know if they opted out etc. Additionally, Liss Riordan has been sending out emails to drivers who may be getting the .37 per mile. So if you get her email updates on the class action then you're in the class action:










At the bottom it says:










This bit about "you should receive a notice about that settlement early next year" is copied and pasted from the emails she sent out last year, so that means that she expects the settlement to be finalised early this year i.e. soon.

And yes, for drivers who have done lots of miles for Uber, it could, unlike all the other settlements, be a nice chunk of change.


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## Lowestformofwit (Sep 2, 2016)

TwoFiddyMile said:


> $20 mil is a good start.
> Chip chip chip...


"One hit to the body..."
Allied to a reported $20mill a month being burned on self-driving cars, that latest SoftBank $1bill investment won't be lasting too long.
"Another straight to the heart..."


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## njn (Jan 23, 2016)

20,000,000/13,600=1,470 before lawyer fees. Something doesn't add up.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

20m might seem small but the amount of drivers that opted out is a fraction of total drivers


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## Stevie The magic Unicorn (Apr 3, 2018)

njn said:


> 20,000,000/13,600=1,470 before lawyer fees. Something doesn't add up.


Considering there were other lawsuits that paid out drivers <$1.00 that's much much better.


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## ValleyAntMan (Mar 14, 2019)

Yes, there are only 13,600 (roughly) drivers that are eligible for this settlement. Only drivers that signed their contracts before Uber added the mandatory arbitration clauses or drivers that opted out within 30 days of signing a contract that had the clause. There are not likely to be a lot of drivers with more than 100,000 paid miles since few drivers last that long or have worked long enough to drive that much. So it's likely the majority of drivers eligible will get less than $1,000. But that will still make this the largest legal payout most of us have received. Personally, I've been driving since 2014 and I'm counting on this to pay for my exit from the biz.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

ValleyAntMan said:


> Yes, there are only 13,600 (roughly) drivers that are eligible for this settlement. Only drivers that signed their contracts before Uber added the mandatory arbitration clauses or drivers that opted out within 30 days of signing a contract that had the clause. There are not likely to be a lot of drivers with more than 100,000 paid miles since few drivers last that long or have worked long enough to drive that much. So it's likely the majority of drivers eligible will get less than $1,000. But that will still make this the largest legal payout most of us have received. Personally, I've been driving since 2014 and I'm counting on this to pay for my exit from the biz.


Call me a cynic but I won't believe it until I see the check in my hand.

I've also been driving since 2014; I'm looking at around 10 grand if my calculations are correct.


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## ValleyAntMan (Mar 14, 2019)

Agreed. I was counting on the 2016 settlement and was crushed when the judge said no. As for the arbitration guys, my advice is to refuse the settlement of 11 cents per mile and let Liss-Riordan take the cases to the arbitrator, one by one. With the Dynamex ruling from the California Supreme Court last April in her hands, she should be able to carve up Uber and get much better results. EVERYBODY deserves a fair settlement!


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

ValleyAntMan said:


> Agreed. I was counting on the 2016 settlement and was crushed when the judge said no. As for the arbitration guys, my advice is to refuse the settlement of 11 cents per mile and let Liss-Riordan take the cases to the arbitrator, one by one. With the Dynamex ruling from the California Supreme Court last April in her hands, she should be able to carve up Uber and get much better results. EVERYBODY deserves a fair settlement!


I have no respect for her. If the judge hadn't said no, that it was too little money, Liss Riordan would have sold drivers out for $100m, but back then there were over 400,000 drivers in the class. Would've been $250 each for drivers on average. She was probably already thumbing through and bookmarking the $million Hawaii beach home catalog.

Anyway, if I were bound by arbitration then I'd also reject 11 cents. I'd tell the arbitrator that Uber thinks 33 cents is fair and I'd ask for that - whether or not someone sent in an email to opt out has no reason to affect the calculation of the damages due.


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## ValleyAntMan (Mar 14, 2019)

The Gift of Fish said:


> I have no respect for her. If the judge hadn't said no, that it was too little money, Liss Riordan would have sold drivers out for $100m, but back then there were over 400,000 drivers in the class. Would've been $250 each for drivers on average. She was probably already thumbing through and bookmarking the $million Hawaii beach home catalog.
> 
> Anyway, if I were bound by arbitration then I'd also reject 11 cents. I'd tell the arbitrator that Uber thinks 33 cents is fair and I'd ask for that - whether or not someone sent in an email to opt out has no reason to affect the calculation of the damages due.


Can't argue with that.


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## ValleyAntMan (Mar 14, 2019)

Reuters tweeted today that the driver settlement has been approved by the judge in San Francisco. Eligible drivers (those that either opted out of the arbitration clause within 30 days of signing their contract, and those that did not have that clause) should expect to be contacted soon by the office of Liss-Riordan. The news should be all over the web by tomorrow.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

ValleyAntMan said:


> Reuters tweeted today that the driver settlement has been approved by the judge in San Francisco. Eligible drivers (those that either opted out of the arbitration clause within 30 days of signing their contract, and those that did not have that clause) should expect to be contacted soon by the office of Liss-Riordan. The news should be all over the web by tomorrow.


Nice. Show me da money!


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## ValleyAntMan (Mar 14, 2019)

Confirmation of judge approval for the settlement is here -

*Uber's $20M Driver Misclassification Deal Gets Green Light*

Law360 (March 22, 2019, 9:04 PM EDT) -- A California federal judge on Thursday greenlit a $20 million deal resolving claims Uber Technologies Inc. misclassified thousands of drivers as independent contractors, after seeking additional information about a number of...


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## PTB (Feb 3, 2015)

The Gift of Fish said:


> Call me a cynic but I won't believe it until I see the check in my hand.
> 
> I've also been driving since 2014; I'm looking at around 10 grand if my calculations are correct.


doesn't seem like alot of miles for 4.5 years of service?
are you talking 0.11 cents or 0.37 cents?


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

PTB said:


> doesn't seem like alot of miles for 4.5 years of service?
> are you talking 0.11 cents or 0.37 cents?


The lawyers say it _might_ be 30 something cents per mile, depending on how many drivers accept the offer. Given (a) that lawyers lie, (b) Uber math and (c) Uber's general propensity to F things up with gross inaccuracy, I figure that $10,00 will probably be the final figure. But in reality it could be anywhere from the price of a Happy Meal up to big money. It's a wait and see.

I called Riordan's office to check on the settlement, but when the call was finished things were less clear than before. The clerk said that the exact payment amount will depend on how many drivers accept. I asked, "how are drivers going to know whether to accept or not if they don't know what the final amount will be?". I did not receive a coherent answer.

I then asked the clerk to tell me what acceptance percentage would result in the figure per mile given in Riordan's email. "I don't have that information", he replied.

So, what I learned was that drivers who accept the class action offer will get some amount, although it's anyone's guess what that may be.


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## PTB (Feb 3, 2015)

minus taxes
so basically enough to buy another 15 year old vehicle to continue service


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