Executives at Kirby Co.’s home office noticed an odd trend: Its door-to-door vacuum-cleaner salespeople were increasingly involved in the same side gig — pitching CBD oil. Kirby, whose parent company is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., didn’t like …
Uber and Lyft suffered a setback in their months-long fight against rules that could force them to reclassify California drivers as employees. The ride-hailing companies, along with other businesses that depend on gig-economy work, have been talking with unions about …
For Uber Technologies Inc., using legal arbitration to deal with driver compensation complaints — over anything from pay to overtime to mileage reimbursement — seemed like the smart play: it would preclude costly class-action litigation, it was private, and few …
The “gig” economy might not be the new frontier for America’s workforce after all. From Uber to TaskRabbit to YourMechanic, so-called gig work has been widely seen as ideal for people who want the flexibility and independence that traditional jobs …
In the contentious matter of whether gig economy workers are the employees of the platforms they work from, positions are often extreme. Uber presents its drivers as independent contractors who value the flexibility of their working arrangements above all else. …
Airbnb Inc. has a message for cities that try to enforce rules that crimp its couch-surfing style: See you in court. The world’s fourth-most valuable startup is testing a legal strategy against its hometown that may be a template for …
Uber Technologies Inc. resolved the biggest threat to its business by settling with California drivers suing to be treated more like traditional employees, a move that could have broad-ranging implications for companies across the sharing economy. The agreement calls for …
Judges and juries around the country are being asked to decide whether Uber and Lyft drivers and other participants in the “gig economy” are really independent contractors or just employees in disguise. But what if they’re something else altogether? Vince …
Lucas Root says he doesn’t remember seeing the door that opened up in front of his bike, knocking him to the pavement and breaking out three teeth. But when he learned the driver was working for Uber, the app-based ride-hailing …