Marking OLS’ Largest Settlement Agreement to Date
For Immediate Release
Contact Information
Cynthia Santana
Phone: 206-256-5219
Email: cynthia.santana@seattle.gov
Office of Labor Standards (OLS) Reaches Settlement of over $3.4 Million Dollars with Uber for Alleged Violations of Seattle’s Gig Worker Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance Impacting Over 15 Thousand Workers
Marking OLS’ Largest Settlement Agreement to Date
Seattle, WA (June 24, 2021) – The Office of Labor Standards announces its largest settlement agreement to date with Uber, a large transportation network and food delivery network company with over 15,000 Seattle workers. Uber settled allegations under the Paid Sick and Safe Time (PSST) for Gig Workers Ordinance for a total financial remedy of $3,452,686.42 to 15,717 affected workers and $11,130.20 to the City of Seattle.
The remedy included $1,278,810.30 to resolve claims for back wages, interest, liquidated damages, and civil penalties for 2,329 affected workers and $2,171,372.82 in advance payment of unused PSST to 15,084 workers.
“I am so grateful to have advocates standing up for driver rights,” said Jamel Jara, an Uber driver who will receive compensation under the settlement agreement. “Having access to paid sick days during this pandemic means we can keep our customers and our families safe and healthy.”
“We commend the Office of Labor Standards and Uber for working together to reach a settlement agreement that upholds drivers’ right to paid sick days,” said Peter Kuel, President of Drivers Union, who started driving for Uber and Lyft in 2014. “Ensuring drivers have the ability to stay home if they are sick is good for public health, good for drivers’ wellbeing, and a precedent-setting victory for the labor movement.”
After workers complained and OLS began its investigation, Uber conducted several audits and discovered that largely due to technical software glitches:
- some gig workers were not able to access their PSST accounts due to technical issues with links on the app;
- some workers’ PSST balances reflected more or fewer PSST days than were actually accrued;
- some workers had their PSST requests inadvertently cancelled; and
- some workers were required to wait until the calendar day following their PSST request before using it.
During OLS’ investigation, Uber voluntarily corrected these issues.
“When Seattle’s Paid Sick and Safe Time for Gig Workers Ordinance was passed last summer, we worked over a few weeks to build an entirely new payment system to comply with the law in a timely manner. While the vast majority of workers claimed their Paid Sick and Safe Time without an issue, we’re grateful that the Office of Labor Standards worked in partnership with us as we improved our systems to ensure accurate and prompt payments,” said Harry Hartfield, Public Affairs Manager for Uber.
“On behalf of the Office of Labor Standards, I want to thank Uber for taking responsibility for their noncompliance issues with Seattle’s labor standards and quickly working to make gig workers whole. OLS is ready to work with any gig economy company that is looking to do right by gig workers in order to comply with our ordinances. Seattle depends on drivers to keep our gig economy thriving and we in turn support them with protections like the Gig Worker Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance,” said OLS Director Steven Marchese.
For more information on the Gig Worker Paid Sick and Safe Time Ordinance please visit the OLS website here.
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