Restaurant-delivery company DoorDash will pay $5.3 million to settle allegations with San Francisco that it stiffed almost 4,500 delivery workers of the city’s mandated health care coverage and paid sick leave.
The settlement represents substantial restitution for some couriers and marks another inflection point in the discord over whether gig workers should be classified as employees or independent contractors, although it does not set a precedent.
DoorDash, which is headquartered in San Francisco, did not admit wrongdoing. Although the health care and sick leave requirements both apply to employees, DoorDash said that settling was not an acknowledgment that a judge could have found it to be an employer. DoorDash, like other gig companies, is adamant that its workers should be classified as independent contractors.
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