Uber and Lyft drivers held rallies across California on Wednesday, including in downtown Los Angeles, pushing for a bigger settlement in a wage theft case against Uber and Lyft.
The case dates back to 2020 when thousands of drivers filed wage theft claims alleging the two companies owed them more than $1 billion in wages, expenses, and damages for illegally classifying them as independent contractors.
But with settlement talks set to begin on Monday, the drivers now say $1 billion isn’t enough.
“Our governments, our cities, and our states can't just say, ‘Well, a billion dollars sounds pretty good,’ because we know we're owed so much more than that,” one woman at the rally said. “And it's not just that they’re breaking laws. They’re breaking drivers’ lives.”
Drivers hope that as part of the settlement, a minimum pay rate could be established so they're paid at least $1.75 per mile and 60 cents per minute.
The drivers hope that the state attorney general and the city attorneys in L.A., San Diego, and San Francisco will push for a fair settlement when they sit down in the planned mediation sessions next week.
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In a statement, Uber said a new statewide report showed that drivers in L.A. were making more than $36 per hour on average including tips.
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