HOW NYTWA HAS FOUGHT FOR DRIVERS STOLEN WAGES:
2015: NYTWA file complaint about the wage theft with Governor’s Office and state Attorney General. No action is taken. The practice continues.
2016: NYTWA and members sue Uber for wage theft.
2017: 12 days after one of our filings in court describes how the law says taxes can’t be included in the fare, Uber announces it “made a mistake” and starts to give back to drivers a smaller amount took out charging commission on the tax and surcharge. The New York Times reported on our lawsuit and how the money was being deducted. Uber drivers are still owed the rest of the money it took out for the actual cost of tax and surcharge. Drivers who signed out of arbitration, and so had the right to participate in a lawsuit, later win settlements. But the majority of drivers have been unable to get back the money because they did not sign out of arbitration.
2019 and 2020: NYTWA members sue Uber and Lyft to challenge arbitration and win back monies for all drivers.
Since 2016, NYTWA has fought to win back the monies Uber and Lyft took from drivers for the cost of the sales tax and Black Car Fund surcharge— for many drivers, this totals thousands of dollars for each year from 2013 until 2017. For years, Uber took both tax and the Black Car Fund surcharge out of the driver’s share of each fare. Lyft also took out two deductions from every fare, that were exactly the same amount of the tax and BCF surcharge (8.875% and 2.5%). Unlike Uber, though, Lyft misrepresented what these deductions were for. After the press covered Uber and Lyft’s deductions, Lyft changed its payment practices, and then altered driver records, to make it look like Lyft had never taken separate 8.875% and 2.5% deductions from driver pay.
The law and the contracts did not allow for the companies to take tax out of drivers’ pay from each fare. Uber and Lyft have largely gotten away with this wage theft so far by using forced arbitration to limit drivers’ ability to come together and recover the money in court.
Uber and Lyft also misclassified drivers as independent contractors, attempting to deny them the protections of state labor law that protect workers from wage theft, and provide for double payback of stolen wages.
While our members’ lawsuits continue to challenge whether the companies are allowed to force drivers into arbitration, drivers should not have to wait a day longer for the stolen income! The New York State Attorney General can stop the abuses and win back the money for all drivers.
LETTER TO NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL LETITIA JAMES
Dear Attorney General Letitia James:
From 2013 until 2017, Uber took the cost of what they marked as the sales tax and Black Car Fund surcharge out of our pay, in violation of what their contracts with us said, and in violation of state law. Uber even made money from commission on the tax and surcharge for themselves.
After NYTWA members filed a lawsuit laying out these claims, Uber paid us back a fraction of what they stole from each fare, but the full cost of customer taxes that they took from our hard-earned pay is still owed to us. Over 80,000 of us who did not sign out of Uber’s arbitration clause are back in court trying to recover our stolen wages.
Like Uber, Lyft took the same amounts of 8.875% and 2.5% out of each fare, on top of its fee, for years, but misrepresented what the deductions were for.
The money they took from us total tens of thousands of dollars for each full-time driver. We need you, as our Attorney General, to stand with us and make wage theft recovery for tens of thousands of drivers and our families a priority. Our job is not easy. And no worker should have their income stolen.
As the highest legal officer in our state, we ask you to join our fight, and secure drivers’ rights and get our stolen wages back