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DoorDash continues to flout state labor laws by misclassifying its drivers, called “dashers”, subjecting them to low wages and lack of benefits, according to a class action lawsuit.
The company is accused of enriching itself on the backs of its drivers, who receive low pay and no benefits as independent contractors. Allegedly, 97.5 percent of DoorDash’s workforce consists of independent contractors who are denied protections under federal and state labor laws.
“Companies like DoorDash were never supposed to be allowed to run an entire business on the backs of independent contractors,” asserts the lawsuit. “People who work in the company’s core line of business are its ‘employees.’”
The plaintiffs say that DoorDash continues to willfully misclassify its drivers as independent contractors to avoid paying benefits or a minimum wage, but treats them like employees.
“Even though federal, California, Illinois, and Massachusetts law require DoorDash drivers to be classified as ‘employees’ and receive the rights and protections employees get, DoorDash continues to willfully misclassify them as independent contractors, to reap the benefit of their work and maximize its profit,” asserts the class action lawsuit.
The lead plaintiffs say they have all worked as dashers and had similar experiences with the company. They say that they have been responsible for paying for the costs associated with making DoorDash deliveries, including gas, insurance, and mileage, despite the company failing to pay them the federal minimum wage for their work.
Despite the low pay and contractor status, dashers must follow detailed instructions when they begin their DoorDash shift. Failure to follow “precise instructions” can result in termination of their position.
A typical shift begins when the dasher clicks a button on the DoorDash app in order to be assigned orders for delivery, according to the lawsuit. Dasher’s tasks include driving to the assigned restaurant, notifying DoorDash that they have arrived, and picking up or waiting for the food order.
The plaintiffs say an assigned credit card, the Red Card, must be used to pay for the food. Then dashers must drive to the customer’s location, park, follow specific delivery options, and notify DoorDash when the delivery is complete.
According to the class action lawsuit, dashers are evaluated based on a series of factors, including “On Time” delivery, customer ratings, completion rates, and acceptance rates. Plaintiffs say delivery times are tight and do not take into account delays at the restaurant or even with the DoorDash app itself.
In addition, dashers are allegedly penalized for trying to take only high paying or low distance orders, potentially facing deactivation of their account for failing to take on more assignments.
“Dashers with low metrics are terminated,” says the lawsuit. “For example, DoorDash bans drivers from the Dasher App if the driver’s Average Customer Rating falls below 4.2 stars.”
Further, a dasher’s metrics can allegedly affect the quality of deliveries they are assigned along with their pay.
Dashers and DoorDash customers alike are duped by the company’s policy on tips, as well, claim the plaintiffs. Customers may think they are leaving their dasher a tip on top of the fee the driver is paid by DoorDash; however, prior to 2019, dashers received either the guaranteed amount DoorDash would pay for the order or the customer tip – not both.
The plaintiffs seek to represent DoorDash dashers in California, Illinois, and Massachusetts who have not signed the company’s arbitration clause.
Have you worked as a DoorDash dasher? We want to hear about your experience. Tell us in the comment section below!
The lead plaintiffs are represented by Jahan Sagafi, Relic Sun, and Molly Frandsen of Outten & Golden LLP and Steven M. Tindall, Aaron Blumenthal, and Nikul Shah of Gibbs Law Group LLP.
The DoorDash Dasher Class Action Lawsuit is Clifford L., et al. v. DoorDash Inc., Case No. 20-cv-00666, in the U.S District Court Northern District of California.
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619 thoughts onDoorDash Class Action Lawsuit Alleges That Drivers Are Paid ‘Substandard Wages’
Can I join this lawsuit if I’m in California?
I have been a dasher for a few months. 4 months at current. Looks to start out high pay but the longer you stay with the app the worse orders you get. If you so much as decline baseline $2 orders ir takes a toll on your acceptance rate and they give you less orders. You decline 1 double up order which neither have any tips, you dont get offered double up orders for over a week. I’ve been doing doordash in the place of unemployment because the unemployment system fails people who don’t have 24/7 access to the internet.
When I decline low paying orders its because I have to pay my bills. I cant deliver every order for free on top of $40-$80 gas bill. I have had to go to my local outreach center and ask for help with bills because of these slavery wages.
on top of normal companies descriminating against and firing people for not having a typical brain (such as autism or adhd), you get the delivery companies forcing these people to work for well below the minimum wage and refusing to compensate for very basic gas. This takes advantage of people who otherwise struggle in a normal work environment.
I don’t know if this applies to washington or not but still, I believe every story if unjust pay needs to be heard.
I’m a dasher in Missouri, and they keep screwing me over! Like tonight, it said I would make $14.25 and hour, but after 53 minutes of dashing they said dashing wasn’t available for my area any longer and I didn’t get the $14.25! This is the second time I’ve had this happen to me. They also knock other driver’s out of scheduled time’s because they allow certain people to hog the time’s.
Also, their customer service is a joke! They know one of the dashers in my area is in a court battle because of sexual abuse charges against them that involves kids, but they haven’t removed that person. They’re not supposed to be around kids!
Can I join this lawsuit if I’m in Virginia
In addition to the complaints listed in this article, as of last summer, as if we were McDonald’s employees, dashers are now required to schedule time slots in advance for when they will be available to accept deliveries. This kind of defeats the whole purpose of being an ic. Prior to this, there was a dash now option where drivers could log onto the app at any time and start receiving delivery requests. I’ve worked as an ic in three different industries and never had to be on a schedule in order to receive work. They also boot you off of the app if you pause a dash for longer than thirty five minutes which makes it difficult to accept offers from other delivery apps, which as ic’s we are entitled to do. When you accept an offer from them, they give you a time threshold in which the deliver must be completed. As an ic, I should be able to accept an offer from another delivery app at the same time and not be harassed or penalized by doordash for doing so, as long as their time threshold is met. So say I get two delivery offers, one for doordash and one for Uber both at the same McDonald’s with delivery locations a few blocks apart from one another, I should be able accept both offers, particularly since the delivery offer payouts are getting lower and lower with each passing day. Yet, if doordash catches a driver doing this they face deactivation or at the very least harassment from doordash. Doordash also hides the full amount of the tip, so drivers never know exactly what they will be paid for each delivery, until the delivery is completed. On shop and deliver offers you have no idea what you are shopping for or delivering until after you have accepted the delivery. It could be a bottle of soda and a bag of chips or 100 pounds worth of dog food. If you accept the delivery and decide you’d rather not load ten bags of sackcrete into your personal vehicle, you will be penalized for unassigning the job. What ic anywhere has no idea what they will be transporting and for the total amount they will be paid until after they accept the job? Lastly, all of these delivery apps skate labor laws by claiming to be an ordering service simply connecting their customers with independent delivery drivers and insist they are not a delivery service. Yet, they all profit off of the deliveries and even mettle in the tipping process by suggesting ridiculously low tips, such as $1, $2, $3, thus the reason the delivery pay offers has dropped by at least 50% since before covid. So covid cannot be conveniently blamed for the low tips that most offers have. It seems to me that a first year law student should be able win a case against these people so that we can be properl and treated either as ic’s once and for all or as employees. Both state and federal law clearly define the difference between employees and contractors and the criteria that must be met for each. Yet these platforms continually violate the criteria with apparent impunity. It is simply a sounding that this has gone on as long as it has.
Can I join this lawsuit if I’m in Virginia?
I’ve been a caregiver for over 25 years until the corona pandemic hit and I was on a ventilator for 5 days. My health declined and I became a door Dasher. I was rear ended n door dash didn’t do anything to help my neck n back pain. I was lied on by a customer and got deactivated after working for door dash for a year and a half. I put several miles on my car. I felt cheated out of my money n not talked to nicely. This isn’t a good company to work for, not at all!!!!
I was with doordash for almost 3 years. I went from $30 t0 $40 per hour to making less than minimum wage at times. I signed up for uber eats for the same thing to happen. I held on for a while not making enough until I was forced to sell my car to make my bills. So now I can’t work cause of their lack of pay.
I got this job to work around a full-time college schedule, and I’ve met people who prefer to do this type of work because they struggle with anxiety and depression at most job environments. This job could be awesome, but it’s barely just enough. Doordash is a 34 billion company, and yesterday I was offered $2 to drive 10 miles on a $35 order. I’ve had some really good days, but the bad days are memorable. When I first started the app constantly froze (it’s better now but still with issues, like telling me I have arrived at my destination while I’m going 70mph in the middle of the highway), we are punished for declining orders (some orders do not cover cost of gas!), customers blame drivers for issues out of our control that are the fault of the restaurant or Doordash company (often resulting in a low rating), drivers can lose their job over false accusations, myself and many others have been falsely accused of not delivering food after handing the food directly to the customer (because of this scam on my record, I can’t receive the bonus for referring several people), and for the drivers who are able to prove it was a scam, the customer, to my knowledge, does not receive any consequences.
I haven’t recived the last paid . Doordash didn’t imbestigated nothing.i don’t have my last paid since 2019.
Door dash is just horrible. I was on the platform for about 9 months with over 2,000 deliveries. The rating system was horrible because it forced you to take orders that weren’t very good. The customers were horrible as well. The customers were rude, obnoxious and cheap. It always seemed 5 minutes before your dash would end you get a delivery that would require driving several miles out of the way causing you to work an hour longer than your dash end time, with no extra pay.
I would never recommend anyone to doordash because it’s not a good experience as stated above.