From Fast Company, Sarah Kessler reports that a woman who worked for Handy has claimed that she was misclassified as an independent contractor and should have been an employee. Sarah writes:
In the wake of a California court’s ruling last month that Uber misclassified a former driver as an independent contractor, a Massachusetts woman named Maisha Emmanuel has filed a similar lawsuit against on-demand cleaning service Handy.
In the proposed class action suit, Emmanuel—who started working for Handy in May this year—says that the company treated its workers like employees by imposing detailed requirements on their work, grading them and maintaining the option to terminate them based on its rules. “The cleaners’ services are fully integrated into Handy’s business, and without the cleaners, Handy’s business would not exist,” the filing reads.
Meanwhile, the lawsuit argues, Handy passes on many of the costs of doing business to the workers, by classifying them as independent contractors. Emmanuel says, for example, that she was required to work for free to reimburse the company for the cost of her cleaning supplies—and, as a result, only made $14 for her first 30 hours of work.
The claims are similar to a lawsuit filed by Handy workers in California in October, as well as suits brought against companies like Uber and Lyft. In fact, Uber just filed an opposing motion to a class-action suit today….
Read the full story at Handy Worker Files Suit, Claims She Made Only $14 For 30 Hours Of Work
As a former independent caregiver for an agency that sends us to clients’ homes or hospital rooms, I don’t really understand this from Ms. Emmanuel, “says that the company treated its workers like employees by imposing detailed requirements on their work, grading them and maintaining the option to terminate them based on its rules.” As a caregiver, though independent, when we went to a clients’ home to work, we were told what to do and what NOT to do, and the agency would follow up with client to see how our performance was (as most of them were elderly who stayed at home). I never took offense to these “rules” due to we were out there representing the agency and obviously they want only good workers out there. The ones that did NOT meet those standards of care were fired (or rather, not sent out to anymore houses)….which I agree with. And as for the $14 for 30 hours…..surely there’s some kind of paperwork that says what they will do before she started. I know there are some owners out there who have shady business practices, but there are also contractors who do NOT meet the standards of the company and get offended by it. Will follow this because it just sounds…..like there’s more to the story.
You don’t have to follow the story. The information about their horrible tactics toward the professionals and consumers are public. Look up the company on BBB and ConsumerReports.com. All that you need to know about this company are in their public reviews.