Razak v. Uber Technologies – ED
Pa. – Sept. 13, 2017
If
apps be the food of the future, log on! With apologies to Shakespeare––the
opening line of Twelfth Night, “If music be the food of love, play on”
providing inspiration––app based ride-sharing is a disruptive business model in
search of a legal theory.1
The
courts that have dealt with litigation arising out of ride-sharing technology
have struggled to find an appropriate legal doctrine to fit these novel
commercial relationships. For this case, one challenge is determining what type
of activity includes a driver being “on call” for an assignment, and whether
this status is “compensable.” Plaintiffs Ali Razak (“Razak”), Kenan Sabani
(“Sabani”), and Khaldoun Cherdoud (“Cherdoud” and, together with Razak and
Sabani, “Plaintiffs”) have brought individual and representative claims against
Gegen, LLC and its sole member, Uber Technologies, Inc. for violations of
the federal minimum wage and overtime requirements under the Fair Labor
Standards Act, 29 § U.S.C. 201 et seq. (“FLSA”), and parallel Pennsylvania
state wage and labor laws.
Before
the Court is Uber’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on the limited question
of whether—assuming, for purposes of this Motion only, that Plaintiffs qualify
as “employees” and Uber as an “employer” under the FLSA2 —the time they spent
Online the Uber App is compensable work time under the FLSA, and by extension,
the PMWA.
