Four delivery drivers sued Amazon on Tuesday, claiming that the company’s new Prime Now service launched in California last month denied them overtime pay, mileage reimbursements, workers’ compensation, and full-time employee status.
The suit, which was filed in Southern California, accuses Amazon Prime Now — a new service branch that promises customers deliveries within a couple hours — of inappropriately classifying the drivers as independent contractors, instead of as true
Amazon employees, according to the Los Angeles Times.
In the suit, the four drivers stated that, because they were not allowed to refuse deliveries, choose which deliveries they preferred to execute, or work less than six or seven regular work shifts per week, Amazon’s classification for them as individual contractors denied them their rightful benefits and payment
procedures as employees, Engadget reported.
“When I was hired, I was told that I would be paid $11 an hour plus tips and $2.50 per delivery,”
wrote plaintiff Taree Truong, according to The Orange County Register. “In September, I had to sign a new contract that eliminated the delivery fee. But I never see an accounting of what tips I receive, because everything is paid through an app. I have no way of knowing whether or not I have been paid what I am due.”
The plaintiffs filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday against both Amazon and Scoobeez, which is Amazon’s contracted courier service. Lead attorney Beth Ross also stated that Amazon Prime Now’s current treatment of its drivers is a “clear abuse of the independent contractor designation,” according to The OC Register.
“These are people who are in no way, shape, or form in business for themselves,” Ross said. “They’re people who interviewed for a job, were hired for that job and show up to an Amazon warehouse every day.”
Earlier this year, Ross and her law firm, Leonard Carder, won a $228 million settlement against FedEx in a similar case in which California delivery drivers were labeled incorrectly and unfairly as independent contractors, according to the Los Angeles Times.