Thousands of Amazon Flex drivers have filed claims alleging the online retail giant wrongly classified them as independent contractors instead of employees, depriving them of various financial benefits and protections.
Approximately 15,750 Amazon Flex drivers in California, Illinois, and Massachusetts say state laws require that Amazon Flex drivers be classified and compensated as employees.
Doing so would allow Flex drivers to collect unpaid wages because Amazon only pays them for a predetermined number of hours, even when deliveries take longer to complete, according to their lawyers.
The latest claims add to the roughly 450 similar claims against Amazon already on file with the American Arbitration Association and currently in litigation, lawyers for the Flex drivers said.
“As Amazon exerts considerable control over the Flex Drivers in their deliveries and the deliveries are part of Amazon’s usual business, the drivers qualify as Amazon employees, not independent contractors, and should be paid accordingly,” Joseph Sellers, partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC and attorney for the drivers, said.
“That Amazon fails to pay these Flex Drivers wages and reimburse expenses that the law requires is inexcusable, exploiting some of the most vulnerable workers in our society. By doing so, Amazon gains a competitive advantage in pricing these delivery services that has contributed to its success as the leading package delivery company in the country.”
An Amazon spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement: “The Amazon Flex program gives individuals the opportunity to set their own schedule and be their own boss, while earning competitive pay.
Amazon’s Business Model Under Fire
According to its website, the Amazon Flex program, founded in 2015, lets people use their own vehicles to deliver packages for Amazon.Drivers use a smartphone app to find “delivery opportunities that are convenient” for them, picking from “delivery blocks” in their area.
They then head to a designated Amazon location to pick up the packages and use the app to navigate to each delivery destination.
Most Amazon drivers earn between $18 and $25 per hour, according to the company’s website, although it noted that this depends on various factors such as their location and how long it takes to complete deliveries.
In the June 11 announcement, lawyers for the Flex drivers noted they have so far succeeded in seven of the eight arbitration claims against Amazon they’ve taken to trial.
Drivers in those cases were awarded, on average, $9,000 each in damages, according to the attorneys.
The latest claims come as Amazon’s business model for its driving workforce has repeatedly come under fire.
FTC Says Amazon Withheld Tips
In 2021, more than 140,000 Amazon Flex drivers received nearly $60 million in withheld tips after the company reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).That settlement came after the FTC claimed that Amazon had illegally withheld millions of dollars in tips from drivers over a 2 1/2-year period between 2016 and 2019, despite telling drivers they would receive 100 percent of the tips they earned while delivering with Amazon Flex.
The FTC claimed in its lawsuit that Amazon had run a tip-stealing scheme and kept drivers’ tips over the period, only stopping its behavior after it learned of the FTC’s investigation in 2019.
Following that ruling, Amazon may face a bill of more than $200,000 in delinquent taxes to Wisconsin’s unemployment insurance fund.
