Ex-Grubhub Driver Wins 8-Year Legal Battle in California Court, Gets $65

After nearly a decade of courtroom arguments and appeals, one California man is finally emerging victorious in a protracted legal fight against Grubhub.

Raef Lawson, a former Grubhub driver and aspiring actor/comedian/writer, has won his case against the company. His complaint, first filed in 2015, is now settled. And for all those years of hearings, filings, and briefings Lawson’s triumph has netted him an astounding…$65 payout.

More important than the financial outcome here, though, is the legal precedent the case sets. The ruling could fundamentally alter how “gig economy” companies like Grubhub, Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash treat their workers in the California.

Lawson’s case hinged on whether he was a contractor in his brief four month stint delivering food for Grubhub, or an employee—entitled to minimum wage, overtime, and other benefits. An initial 2018 ruling sided with the company, and denied Lawson employee status. But after an appeal to the Ninth Circuit and a remand back down to the same district court, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley has now ruled that, under California laws, Lawson was legally a Grubhub employee.

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“Mr. Lawson is properly classified as an employee, not an independent contractor, for purposes of his minimum wage and overtime claims,” wrote Judge Corley. “He is entitled to judgment on his minimum wage claim (count two of the complaint) with damages in the amount of $65.11,” the order adds. The plaintiff wasn’t awarded any overtime, as the court ruled his compensable time worked never exceeded 4o hours in a week. Still, 65 bucks isn’t too shabby when it comes with employee status.

Employees have many more rights than independent contractors and are legally guaranteed many more benefits from their employers like overtime and access to unemployment insurance. Gig workers have been fighting to be recognized as employees for years now, and in places like California they are beginning to make headway. Between Judge Corley’s first and last rulings in Lawson’s case, the state law changed. AB5, a landmark piece of legislation, passed in 2019—thus setting stricter standards protecting workers and instituting a new set of criteria for what is/isn’t an employee. 

It’s on these recently instituted criteria that Thursday’s ruling is based. Corley decided that the Grubhub/Lawson relationship didn’t satisfy the so-called ABC test for contract work, and that Grubhub wasn’t eligible for an exception to the ABCs. Under the test, a worker can only be considered a contractor if they meet three requirements:

• The worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact;
• The worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and
• The worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.

Obviously, delivering food for Grubhub does relate to the company’s main business. After all, that is Grubhub’s entire business. The judge agreed. “The usual course of its business is connecting restaurants with diners to facilitate food ordering. Food delivery is not outside the usual course of that business,” ruled Corley. “Because Grubhub has not established Prong B, it does not meet the ABC test and Mr. Lawson is properly classified as an employee for purposes of his minimum wage and overtime claims.”

The question of how companies built on the backs of gig workers have to categorize those drivers/couriers/Task Rabbits/etc… is a long-standing one that multiple states have been grappling with. Last year, Massachusetts’ Supreme Court ruled against a ballot measure that would’ve designated all gig workers as independent contractors. Other states, like Georgia, Alabama, and Florida have favored the corporations. 

Yet those state decisions could become moot if Biden’s Department of Labor successfully institutes a proposed federal rule guaranteeing gig workers employee status. Rideshare and delivery companies have come out in strong opposition to the rule. Most recently, Uber and Lyft’s trade group have publicly questioned the merit of Biden’s recent DOL nominee as the companies attempt to undermine worker rights.

The entirety of Thursday’s California ruling is embedded below.