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Law360 (June 18, 2020, 8:06 PM EDT) -- New York state has said that a federal judge shouldn't order the Empire State to immediately pay unemployment benefits to a group of drivers for Uber and other app-based car services, arguing that the drivers are already receiving unemployment insurance.
On Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the New York State Department of Labor and the agency's commissioner, Roberta Reardon, urged a New York federal judge to deny a preliminary injunction bid filed by four drivers and the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. The drivers and organization are seeking the injunction as part of their suit claiming the labor department slow-walked their claims for emergency unemployment benefits during the coronavirus pandemic by treating them as independent contractors.
While the drivers said in their May 28 motion that they faced irreparable harm without a preliminary injunction, the state said that all four of the drivers are already receiving unemployment benefits from either New York or the federal government under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
And because the four drivers are receiving additional funds under a separate federal unemployment program, they are netting "amounts greater than those received by previous recipients due to additional federal funding," the state said.
"[The New York State Department of Labor] has been working non-stop to assist all New Yorkers, including plaintiffs, in obtaining the appropriate type and level of unemployment benefits to which they are entitled, and to provide a timely appeal process for workers to challenge benefit determinations," the state said. "This process has worked well here: plaintiffs are receiving significant benefits."
The suit was filed last month and alleges the state has violated the U.S. Constitution and the Social Security Act by making drivers jump through hoops to collect benefits even after the state's highest court cleared their path to the benefits.
The drivers claim the state has delayed their access to unemployment benefits by forcing them to prove their earnings rather than getting this data from their employers, as it does for workers it treats as employees.
The state "willfully disregarded controlling precedent" from the New York Court of Appeals and a New York State Department of Labor panel known as the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board by continuing to treat the drivers as independent contractors, the suit contends.
In July 2018, the Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board affirmed an administrative judge's ruling that three Uber drivers were employees and could collect benefits. And in March, the New York Court of Appeals — the state's highest court — said couriers for app-based food delivery service Postmates were also owed benefits.
Nicole Salk, an attorney for the drivers, told Law360 on Thursday that she and her team were "working on reply papers and … expect to be successful."
The New York attorney general's office declined to comment beyond the filing.
The drivers are represented by Edward Josephson, Nicole Salk, Sarah E. Dranoff and Udoka Odoemene of Legal Services NYC and Zubin Soleimany of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.
The state of New York is represented by Assistant Attorney General C. Harris Dague.
The case is Islam et al. v. Andrew Cuomo et al., case number 1:20-cv-02328, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
--Additional reporting by Braden Campbell and Danielle Nichole Smith. Editing by Jack Karp.
For a reprint of this article, please contact reprints@law360.com.
