While many Silicon Valley companies are taking tough measures to return their employees to the office, the U.S. Department of Health is urging workers in San Francisco to stay home indefinitely.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the stay-at-home recommendation was issued on August 4 because of concerns about the safety of workers at the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building downtown, an area that has become a popular hangout for drug dealers and users.

“Given the conditions at [federal building]we recommend that employees … maximize the use of telework to the extent possible for the foreseeable future,” Cheryl R. Campbell, HHS deputy secretary for administration, wrote in a memo.

It's unclear whether other federal departments in the building have given their employees similar instructions. The memo was issued the same day the White House called for more employees to return to their desks in the coming weeks.

Around the same time the memo was sent, Rep. Nancy Pelosi herself met with the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California to express her concerns about the safety of workers in the building. (Pelosi's staff has not been advised to work from home, the Chronicle reported.)

The federal building is guarded by the Federal Protective Service, which works with the San Francisco Police Department. Still, the area is teeming with dealers, and drug users congregate on the concrete benches lining the property (and consume the product they buy).

San Francisco's downtown/central business district is more depressed than almost any other post-pandemic area — and some economists fear it's at the beginning of a “vicious spiral” in which empty office buildings and crime lead to more absenteeism and higher crime rates. Uniqlo, Nordstrom Rack and Anthropologie have all closed their branches, and many local stores have shuttered. And crime is up. Shampoo, toothpaste and other toiletries are locked away at downtown pharmacies. And armed robbers recently raided a Gucci store in broad daylight.

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DoorDash is facing a lawsuit from San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin for “illegally misclassifying employees as independent contractors,” Boudin tweeted today. In the complaint, Boudin argues that DoorDash misclassified its employees and thereby engaged in unfair labor practices.

“Misclassification of workers results in the deprivation of the employment protections to which they are entitled by depriving workers of, among other things, minimum wage and overtime pay, unemployment insurance and protection from discrimination,” Boudin said in a press release. “[…] Now more than ever, given the COVID pandemic, we need to protect our workers, especially the essential workers who deliver food to us every day.”

In a statement to TechCrunch, DoorDash noted how it has supported its employees during the pandemic by providing them with safety equipment, telemedicine and more.

“Today’s action aims to disrupt Dashers’ essential services, deprive hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, parents, retirees and other Californians of valuable job opportunities, deprive local restaurants of much-needed revenue, and make it harder for consumers to prepare “Food, groceries and other essentials are safe and reliable,” said Max Rettig, global head of public policy at DoorDash, in a statement. “We will fight to continue to offer Dashers the flexible earning opportunities they want during these challenging times.”

This lawsuit comes at a time when gig worker rights groups have called on companies like DoorDash, Uber, Lyft and Instacart to comply with AB 5. AB 5, which went into effect earlier this year, determines what type of workers can and cannot be classified as independent contractors.

The law codifies the ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles. In this case, the court applied the ABC test and held that Dynamex misclassified its employees as independent contractors.

Under the ABC test, for a hiring company to legally classify a worker as an independent contractor, it must demonstrate that the worker is not subject to the hiring company's control and direction, performs work outside the scope of the company's business, and does so on a regular basis independently founded business or a similar company. In the lawsuit, Boudin describes DoorDash as failing to meet the standards of the ABC test.

“DoorDash’s misclassification of its Dashers was not a mistake, but rather a calculated decision to reduce the cost of doing business at the expense of the workers who provide the company’s core service of delivering goods from merchant to customer,” the lawsuit says Conditions.

The lawsuit seeks to have DoorDash stop classifying its employees as independent contractors and be fined up to $2,500 for each violation and up to $2,500 for each violation involving a senior or disabled person.

DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, Postmates and Instacart are sponsoring a ballot measure aimed at allowing them to classify workers as independent contractors. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft face a misclassification lawsuit from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and city attorneys from Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

This lawsuit argues that Uber and Lyft deprive workers of the right to minimum wage, overtime, access to paid sick leave, disability insurance, and unemployment insurance. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, seeks a $2,500 penalty for each violation, possibly per driver, under California's unfair competition law and an additional $2,500 for violations involving seniors or people with disabilities.

The post San Francisco DA sues DoorDash for classifying supply employees as impartial contractors appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin today filed an unfair business practices lawsuit against food delivery service DoorDash, which has consistently classified its employees as independent contractors rather than employees, contrary to California law.

“I assure you that this is just the first step of many to fight for worker safety and equal enforcement of the laws,” Boudin said at the virtual press conference today. This lawsuit is being led by Assistant District Attorney Scott Stillman's White Collar Crimes Against Employees Unit – “and I did not bring ADA Stillman into the office to file a single lawsuit,” Boudin continued.

No messages were returned for DoorDash as of press time.

Today's lawsuit was filed at Section 17200 of the State Business and Professions Codewhat applies to ““Any unlawful, unfair or fraudulent commercial act.” Either a prosecutor or a prosecutor can take action under this code – and in fact, in May, Attorney General Dennis Herrera, along with colleagues in Los Angeles and San Diego, filed a lawsuit against Uber and Lyft for their Employees had allegedly miscategorized.

According to the California Supreme Court decision: “Dynamex” decision of April 2018, a three-point test was established to determine whether workers should be classified as employees or independent contractors.

No reasonable interpretation of this ruling could result in Doordash workers—or Uber and Lyft drivers, or many others—being classified as anything other than employees.

In April 2019, it was revealed that DoorDash was applying the tips DoorDash had given its employees to their base wages instead of serving as tips – which led to this A complaint is filed against the company with the city's Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement.

In September 2019, the “Dynamex” decision was essentially codified as law under AB5, authored by Rep. Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego).

“When you think of theft, you don’t often think of wage theft,” said Gonzalez, who took part in today’s virtual press conference. “If an employee stole from his boss, he would go to prison. But employers steal from their employees in large quantities every day.”

By misclassifying workers as independent contractors rather than employees, companies can avoid paying the minimum wage, providing mandatory breaks, and providing health care or sick days. Workers in such conditions are subsidized by the social safety net, which in turn is subsidized by taxpayers and law-abiding corporations.

“DoorDash has a long history of being an exploitative employer,” Veena Dubal, a labor law professor at UC Hastings, told Mission Local. “Like Uber, the company’s business model is based on the fiction that its employees are independent contractors. This means that the people whose work led to the company’s sky-high valuation will not have access to a wage floor, workers’ compensation in the event of an injury, or unemployment insurance if they are fired through no fault of their own.”

During the ongoing pandemic, Dubal continued, these workers have continued to be classified as “essential” and have “risked their lives to deliver food from restaurants to families in lockdown.”

“DoorDash has vigorously fought the employment claims of its delivery drivers,” Dubal said. “This lawsuit today – filed by the San Francisco District Attorney – puts the state’s weight behind these allegations.”

DoorDash Complaint by Joe Eskenazi on Scribd

Update, 2:20 p.m.: A statement from Max Rettig, DoorDash Global Head of Public Policy:

More than ever, Californians from all walks of life are looking to DoorDash for flexible earning opportunities, working an average of a few hours per week. Throughout the pandemic, DoorDash has supported Dashers on and off the road with free safety equipment, telemedicine, wage replacement and more. Today's action aims to disrupt Dashers' essential services, deprive hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, parents, retirees and other Californians of valuable job opportunities, deprive local restaurants of much-needed revenue, and make it more difficult for consumers to receive prepared food Store groceries, groceries and other essentials safely and reliably. We will fight to continue to offer Dashers the flexible earning opportunities they want during these challenging times.

If you would like to continue to employ us – and have not already done so – support us now.

The post San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin sues DoorDash for ‘unlawful misclassification’ of employees as unbiased contractors appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

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Photo credit: DoorDash / File Photo

DoorDash is facing a lawsuit from San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin for “illegally misclassifying employees as independent contractors,” Boudin tweeted today. In the complaint, Boudin argues that DoorDash misclassified its employees and thereby engaged in unfair labor practices.

“Misclassification of workers results in the deprivation of the employment protections to which they are entitled by depriving workers of, among other things, minimum wage and overtime pay, unemployment insurance and protection from discrimination,” Boudin said in a press release. “[…] Now more than ever, given the COVID pandemic, we need to protect our workers, especially the essential workers who deliver food to us every day.”

In a statement to TechCrunch, DoorDash noted how it has supported its employees during the pandemic by providing them with safety equipment, telemedicine and more.

“Today’s action aims to disrupt Dashers’ essential services, deprive hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, parents, retirees and other Californians of valuable job opportunities, deprive local restaurants of much-needed revenue, and make it harder for consumers to prepare “Food, groceries and other essentials are safe and reliable,” said Max Rettig, global head of public policy at DoorDash, in a statement. “We will fight to continue to offer Dashers the flexible earning opportunities they want during these challenging times.”

This lawsuit comes at a time when gig worker rights groups have called on companies like DoorDash, Uber, Lyft and Instacart to comply with AB 5. AB 5, which went into effect earlier this year, determines what type of workers can and cannot be classified as independent contractors.

The law codifies the ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles. In this case, the court applied the ABC test and held that Dynamex misclassified its employees as independent contractors.

Under the ABC test, for a hiring company to legally classify a worker as an independent contractor, it must demonstrate that the worker is not subject to the hiring company's control and direction, performs work outside the scope of the company's business, and does so on a regular basis independently founded business or a similar company. In the lawsuit, Boudin describes DoorDash as failing to meet the standards of the ABC test.

“DoorDash’s misclassification of its Dashers was not a mistake, but rather a calculated decision to reduce the cost of doing business at the expense of the workers who provide the company’s core service of delivering goods from merchant to customer,” the lawsuit says Conditions.

The lawsuit seeks to have DoorDash stop classifying its employees as independent contractors and be fined up to $2,500 for each violation and up to $2,500 for each violation involving a senior or disabled person.

DoorDash, Uber, Lyft, Postmates and Instacart are sponsoring a ballot measure aimed at allowing them to classify workers as independent contractors. Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft face a misclassification lawsuit from California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and city attorneys from Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.

This lawsuit argues that Uber and Lyft deprive workers of the right to minimum wage, overtime, access to paid sick leave, disability insurance, and unemployment insurance. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, seeks a $2,500 penalty for each violation, possibly per driver, under California's unfair competition law and an additional $2,500 for violations involving seniors or people with disabilities.

The post San Francisco DA sues DoorDash for classifying supply staff as unbiased contractors appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Nancy Pelosi's namesake building is not safe for federal workers. Ever Countess – Getty Images for TIME

While many Silicon Valley companies are working hard to bring workers back to the office, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is urging San Francisco workers to stay home indefinitely.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the stay-at-home advisory was issued on August 4 due to safety concerns for workers at the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building downtown. The area is now regularly visited by drug dealers and users.

“Given the conditions on [federal building]“We recommend that our employees maximize their use of telework for the foreseeable future,” HHS Assistant Secretary for Administration Cheryl R. Campbell wrote in a memo.

It is unclear whether other federal departments in the building have issued similar guidance to their employees. The memo was issued the same day the White House called for more staff to return to their desks in the coming weeks.

Around the same time the memo was sent, Rep. Nancy Pelosi herself met with the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California to express her concerns about the safety of workers in the building. (Pelosi's employees were not advised to work remotely, the Chronicle reported.)

The federal building is protected by the Federal Protective Service, which coordinates with the San Francisco Police Department. Still, the area is littered with dealers, and drug users congregate (and consume the product they buy) on the concrete benches along the property.

San Francisco's downtown/central business district is more depressed than almost any other in the wake of the pandemic – and some economists fear it is at the beginning of a “doom loop” in which empty office buildings and crime lead to further absenteeism and higher levels of crime. Uniqlo, Nordstrom Rack and Anthropologie have all closed their locations and many local businesses have closed. And crime is increasing. Shampoo, toothpaste and other toiletries are locked in downtown pharmacies. And armed robbers recently held up a Gucci store in broad daylight.

The post San Francisco federal employees informed to work remotely appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

South San Francisco city employees, including 911 dispatchers, park workers, preschool teachers, librarians and others, are on the verge of striking, according to a group claiming affiliation with AFSCME 829, a union that represents public employees.

The group, People For A Fair South City, said in a release about 120 employees could strike later this month. Facilities maintenance workers, Public Works employees and building and construction inspectors are also among those represented, according to the release.

The workers are seeking raises for their upcoming three-year contract.

According to a statement from the city, the workers were offered a 12% raise over three years, 6% in the first year and 3% in the second and third year of the contract. But sought are across-the-board wage increases of 13% to 16% over two years, with increases up to 20% for some employees, according to the statement.

The workers say they are demanding raises to align with pay offered in neighboring cities, where employees make 12% more, according to People For A Fair South City. More than 95% of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 829 members working for South San Francisco have signed commitments to go on strike if necessary, according to the group.

The move also comes after the City Council approved $4,800 bonuses to be given to its workforce, nearly 450 employees, in June after fruit negotiations with the same union.

Council member Mark Addiego said the bonus negotiation “set the tone for a real contentious time with the regular contract.”

He said while he agreed wages should be increased amid inflation and other factors driving up the cost of living, the raises asked for would cause the city’s budget to go into a deficit. He said preliminary projections indicate the city’s revenue will increase in coming years, however, he would be uncomfortable approving such an ask.

“I believe we’ve gone as far as we can, because in all my time serving, I don’t remember a time when contracts took us into red ink,” he said. “They have their fears, the rank-and-file have their fears about the future, and so does this councilperson.”

The group points to nearly $60 million in the city’s reserves, roughly half the city’s annual operating budget.

“We have more than enough to pay our workers a little more,” the group’s website reads. It further states that as the cost of living in the region has increased, city employees have absorbed a 9.1% pay cut in the last 14 years.

Council member James Coleman indicated support for the requested raises.

“At the city of South San Francisco, we really value our workers and we want to make sure that they are given fair wages, a fair contract,” he said.

He said while there was uncertainty in the budget in coming years, and a balance would be required to ensure fiscal responsibility, he believed the budget would be “definitely able to sustain a raise that our workers could be proud of.”

“We do have a healthy amount of reserves in the city, which can be used in times like these, when there’s COVID still happening, there is a recession,” he said.

Along with the bonuses for city employees in June, the City Council last week approved $4,800 bonuses for executive management and public safety managers, including the city manager, department heads and high-ranking fire and police department members — employees left out of the first round of bonuses.

Also approved with the council’s action were across-the-board raises of 6% in the first year and 3% increases in both the second and third years for the group.

The post South San Francisco employees threaten strike | Native Information appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Employees said management declined to voluntarily recognize their membership in the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 29 during a tense town hall on Friday. According to workers who spoke with KQED, Kisch told staff that a letter with a list of names was not sufficient to show unionizing was not an “actual, uncoerced decision on the part of each employee listed.”

Even without that recognition, workers will soon move forward with a ballot election.

“Most of us can’t afford to live in the city where we help people find housing,” said Juliana Dunn, who works with kids at Compass Clara House, a transitional housing program. “And we want to have a voice in that. We want to have a seat at the negotiation table. We don’t want to be dismissed.”

In a written statement to KQED, Kisch said that she respected the right of staff to decide whether to bring in a labor organization to represent them in collective bargaining.

“For more than 100 years Compass Family Services has been devoted to serving the homeless families in our community, including new arrivals,” she wrote in the statement. “If a majority of our staff decide that is in their best interest, we will honor that decision.”

Dunn said employees began talking about the need to improve working conditions around the fall of 2021. They were worried at the time that hybrid work options were ending, and staff would need to return to work in person five days a week.

Jobs at Compass can be both fast-paced and high stress, with workers having difficult conversations over the phone, sometimes in multiple languages ​​at once. That can make working in the office uncomfortable, and can place an unnecessary burden on Compass staff already struggling to balance child care on top of the secondary trauma of working with families experiencing homelessness. Staff at Compass are also overwhelmingly people of color.

Dunn said that when staff attempted to share their concerns about equity, workers felt dismissed. They said the work environment became even more uncomfortable because of microaggressions, like glares on the job or suggestions that they were replaceable. After that, workers began researching what union membership could look like.

Compass is not the only city nonprofit to see labor strife recently. Employees at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, another San Francisco transitional housing provider, went on strike over the summer for the first time in history and ratified a contract for higher wages earlier this month. Staff at Hotel Whitcomb, one of the city’s hotels housing vulnerable residents under the state’s Project Roomkey program, have described the mental health toll on the job of regularly responding to drug overdoses.

Melani Gomez is currently a case manager at Compass. She previously was a client for about seven years. She relied on services through SF HOME, a program with Compass that provides rental subsidies and case management. Gomez said she went through about seven case managers during the years she used their services.

“You have to tell your story again and again and again. And sometimes you get tired,” Gomez said, adding that now she understands why so many of her case managers left. “Being a client really helped me grow and be where I am right now. But seeing the other side of that coin, they’re not very supportive of their own families who are working for them.”

Alex Arauz works at Compass’ Central City Access Point, one of the first points of contact for families experiencing homelessness. His official job title is “problem solver.” He said that without Compass, many families would be lost, calling every agency to see where they could receive help.

Before he worked at Compass, he worked at a union shop, Catholic Charities, but was looking for somewhere more progressive that embraced harm-reduction services. When he started in August, he said he heard murmurs of unionizing and workers who were scared.

“I have never experienced a workplace where every single worker was scared of what administration could do. And it shook me,” he said. “To be scared of this agency that said, ‘We’re all a family, we’re all here.’ That’s not something that I want to feel from an agency that says they have my back, and I thought we were all moving towards the same goals.”

The post ‘We Do not Wish to Be Dismissed’: Employees at Compass Household Companies in San Francisco Plan Vote to Unionize appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

If your travel plans this week include a stop at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) you might want to pack a few extra snacks and grab a coffee before you get there.

Following nine months of wage negotiations, SFO restaurant workers declared a general strike early Monday morning, SFist reports.

Workers previously voted by a margin of 99.7 percent to authorize a strike if a deal couldn’t be reached, according to a news release. Now, 1,000 of the airport’s cashiers, cooks, bartenders, baristas, servers and dishwashers are following through.

Unite Here Local 2, the union representing SFO’s food service workers, held a demonstration outside the airport on September 16. Forty-one workers and their supporters, including some elected officials, were arrested for blocking traffic outside of Terminal 3.

The majority of the airport’s restaurant workers make around $17.05 per hour and haven’t gotten a raise in three years, union members said in a statement. In a few videos posted to social media, workers have compared their wages to the prices of popular menu items at the airport. One such video has been viewed over 500,000 times.

In the short clips, workers take special care to note that their hourly wage isn’t even enough to cover a meal at their employer’s establishment.

All told, the strike will affect 30 different employers at 84 food and beverage outlets throughout the airport. The employers are bargaining as a collective, represented by the SFO Airport Restaurant Employer Council.

In a statement from SFO, airport officials pointed out that while a majority of their food and beverage locations will be shut down, staffing at airport newsstands isn’t currently affected. Those outlets will still be able to offer grab-and-go food and beverages.

The post San Francisco Airport Meals Service Employees Simply Went on Strike appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Employees said management declined to voluntarily recognize their membership in the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 29 during a tense town hall on Friday. According to workers who spoke with KQED, Kisch told staff that a letter with a list of names was not sufficient to show unionizing was not an “actual, uncoerced decision on the part of each employee listed.”

Even without that recognition, workers will soon move forward with a ballot election.

“Most of us can’t afford to live in the city where we help people find housing,” said Juliana Dunn, who works with kids at Compass Clara House, a transitional housing program. “And we want to have a voice in that. We want to have a seat at the negotiation table. We don’t want to be dismissed.”

In a written statement to KQED, Kisch said that she respected the right of staff to decide whether to bring in a labor organization to represent them in collective bargaining.

“For more than 100 years Compass Family Services has been devoted to serving the homeless families in our community, including new arrivals,” she wrote in the statement. “If a majority of our staff decide that is in their best interest, we will honor that decision.”

Dunn said employees began talking about the need to improve working conditions around the fall of 2021. They were worried at the time that hybrid work options were ending, and staff would need to return to work in person five days a week.

Jobs at Compass can be both fast-paced and high stress, with workers having difficult conversations over the phone, sometimes in multiple languages ​​at once. That can make working in the office uncomfortable, and can place an unnecessary burden on Compass staff already struggling to balance child care on top of the secondary trauma of working with families experiencing homelessness. Staff at Compass are also overwhelmingly people of color.

Dunn said that when staff attempted to share their concerns about equity, workers felt dismissed. They said the work environment became even more uncomfortable because of microaggressions, like glares on the job or suggestions that they were replaceable. After that, workers began researching what union membership could look like.

Compass is not the only city nonprofit to see labor strife recently. Employees at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, another San Francisco transitional housing provider, went on strike over the summer for the first time in history and ratified a contract for higher wages earlier this month. Staff at Hotel Whitcomb, one of the city’s hotels housing vulnerable residents under the state’s Project Roomkey program, have described the mental health toll on the job of regularly responding to drug overdoses.

Melani Gomez is currently a case manager at Compass. She previously was a client for about seven years. She relied on services through SF HOME, a program with Compass that provides rental subsidies and case management. Gomez said she went through about seven case managers during the years she used their services.

“You have to tell your story again and again and again. And sometimes you get tired,” Gomez said, adding that now she understands why so many of her case managers left. “Being a client really helped me grow and be where I am right now. But seeing the other side of that coin, they’re not very supportive of their own families who are working for them.”

Alex Arauz works at Compass’ Central City Access Point, one of the first points of contact for families experiencing homelessness. His official job title is “problem solver.” He said that without Compass, many families would be lost, calling every agency to see where they could receive help.

Before he worked at Compass, he worked at a union shop, Catholic Charities, but was looking for somewhere more progressive that embraced harm-reduction services. When he started in August, he said he heard murmurs of unionizing and workers who were scared.

“I have never experienced a workplace where every single worker was scared of what administration could do. And it shook me,” he said. “To be scared of this agency that said, ‘We’re all a family, we’re all here.’ That’s not something that I want to feel from an agency that says they have my back, and I thought we were all moving towards the same goals.”

The post ‘We Do not Wish to Be Dismissed’: Employees at Compass Household Companies in San Francisco Plan Vote to Unionize appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.