Seattle Reaches $3.3 Million Settlement with Uber Eats Over Gig Worker Pay Violations
Workspan Daily
October 28, 2022

As reported by Yahoo! News, the Seattle Office of Labor Standards (OLS) has reached a settlement worth more than $3.3 million with Uber Eats for alleged violations of the Gig Worker Premium Pay Ordinance. It is the largest settlement in OLS history under the ordinance, according to the city. 

The ordinance requires food delivery companies like Uber Eats to pay their workers additional compensation called “premium pay” for delivery orders with pick-up and drop-off points within Seattle city limits. 

OLS alleged that Uber Eats failed to give workers premium pay when workers went to pick-up locations and the locations were closed, or when customers had canceled or already picked up their orders. Uber Eats also allegedly failed to give workers premium pay for delivery orders from certain drugstores in Seattle. 

OLS also alleged that over a 14-day period in 2022, Uber Eats only paid drivers $0.025 per online order instead of the required $2.50 in premium pay due to a software glitch. 

In total, Uber Eats has agreed to pay a settlement of $3,333,088.30 to 10,467 gig workers and $2,560.90 in fines to the city of Seattle. 

The Gig Worker Premium Pay Ordinance will expire with the COVID-19 civil emergency in Seattle on Oct. 31. 

Gig workers have up to three years from the date of the alleged violation to file a complaint with OLS or take other legal action. 

Bank of America Updates Return-to-Office Plans 

Bank of America Corp. has revealed employees will have to work from the office depending on their role and functional needs, with some of them needing to be in office for three days a week, according to a memo seen by Reuters. Previously, the company had announced in September it would issue new guidelines.  

We have 210,000 people and there’s literally 210,000 different views of what people want,” chief executive Brian Moynihan said at the time. We’ll have more flexibility than we did, on paper, before. 

Positions that require in-office locations, including financial center employees, will continue to be fully based in offices through their full work schedule, the memo said. 

Roles that generally need to function inside offices will have the option to work from home for a limited number of days each month, while employees with job profiles supporting a split schedule will work in the office for a minimum of three days each week, according to the memo. 

Capital One Canada to Offer Employees Six Months of Protected Leave  

Capital One Canada recently announced it will support employee well-being by providing six months of protected leave to volunteer, travel or take time with family. 

According to Benefits Canada, the financial organization launched the program in September after noticing requests for leaves were coming up without a formal process in place. While some employees’ requests were in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, many were just asking for time to travel or volunteer, said Becca Mintz, Capital One’s vice president and head of customer acquisitions. 

The company is also using its parental leave policy to build a workplace culture that models the premise that caregiving, whether for children or elderly parents, is accepted. Its 26-week parental leave benefit, which includes a 100% top-up for six weeks, followed by 75% for 20 weeks, is available to all new parents. In addition, nearly 45% of parental leaves at Capital One were taken by men this year. 

“The policy recognizes that there are many ways to start a family and that spending time with your family is part of the experience, as opposed to something you have to do on your own while sacrificing that working experience,” Mintz said. 

Study: Interest in Remote Work Surges 300% 

According to a jobs study compiled by Semrush, remote work search queries jumped 300% from July 2021 to July 2022. 

The study showed the most searched queries related to remote work are “remote jobs” 260K monthly searches and 234% YoY growth; “remote jobs near me” 52.8K searches and 654% YoY growth; “Amazon remote jobs” 29.7K searches and 123% YoY growth; “part-time remote jobs” 28.3K searches and 308% YoY growth. 

Since autumn 2021, visits to the career pages of tech giants, such as Amazon, Meta, Google, Netflix and Apple, have doubled both in the U.S and around the world. Amazon career pages receive an average of 7 million monthly views in the U.S. The next most popular career page is Meta’s, which earns 1.2 million monthly visitors. During summer 2022, visits to Amazon have only grown, hitting 18 million in August. 

The top three jobs people are searching for in the U.S are flight attendant, medical assistant and securities. The jobs with the biggest search growth year over year were data analyst, project manager and proofreader jobs. The latter jumped 83%. 

On the decline in popularity are pharmacy technician, administrative assistant, nanny, firefighter and tutor jobs all of which saw greater than 45% decreases in search volume. 

Editor’s Note: Additional Content 

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