The New York Taxi Workers Alliance sued New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Department of Labor on Monday, arguing that drivers working for apps including Uber and Lyft are owed regular and timely unemployment benefits.

The failure by Uber and Lyft to report their drivers' earnings has created unnecessary work for overburdened Department of Labor workers and put drivers at tremendous risk amid a global pandemic, advocates for the four drivers named in the suit said during a news conference Tuesday.

The suit comes nearly two years after the New York State Unemployment Insurance Appeal Board found that app-based drivers in New York are employees under unemployment insurance law, Nicole Salk, senior staff attorney at Legal Services NYC, and New York Taxi Workers Alliance staff attorney Zubin Soleimany noted in a complaint filed late Monday in the Eastern District of New York.

"The DOL's inaction flies in the face of settled law," Salk and Soleimany wrote.

Because Uber and Lyft have not reported earning data to the state, Salk said, drivers must go through a reconsideration process to even try to get unemployment benefits. Some drivers have given up because the process is so complicated and requires a fax machine, Salk said.

"It takes months in good times, and we are not in good times right now," she said.

Soleimany said filing for unemployment should be a "seamless process" for Uber and Lyft drivers, and they should start receiving benefits within two to three weeks like employees at other companies in New York. Instead, the four employees named as plaintiffs in Monday's suit said they have waited as long as two months.

In addition to the immediate payment of unemployment insurance benefits, the plaintiffs are seeking an order prohibiting their misclassification as independent contractors and compelling the DOL to require the companies to report their drivers' earning data.

Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, emphasized that the drivers are asking for a benefit they've already earned.

"We should not have to file a lawsuit to ask our Department of Labor to follow the law," she said.

Workers in the gig economy, including Uber and Lyft drivers, can receive Pandemic Unemployment Assistance through the CARES Act, according to the DOL's website.

New York has a single application for benefits to help workers determine whether they're eligible for unemployment insurance or PUA, but in the complaint, attorneys for the four drivers calculated that they would receive hundreds of dollars more per month in unemployment insurance compared to PUA.

Jack Sterne, a spokesperson for Cuomo's office, said New York has actually been processing requests for benefits faster than most other states.

"During this pandemic emergency, we have been moving heaven and earth to get every single unemployed New Yorker their benefits as quickly as possible—including Uber and Lyft drivers who are treated no different than any other worker and, during this crisis, are receiving unemployment benefits through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program quicker than most other states," Sterne said in a statement. "New York launched our Pandemic Unemployment Assistance application weeks before other states, and we are now processing more than 100,000 PUA applications per week. As a result of this quick action and worker-friendly policy, we've delivered over $10 billion in benefits to 2 million unemployed New Yorkers—far more than any other state on a per-capita basis."

In a statement, Uber spokesman Harry Hartfield said the company has provided the data requested by New York state.

Julie Wood, a spokeswoman for Lyft, said in a statement that the company is working with the DOL.

"The special interests behind this lawsuit aren't interested in what's best for drivers, since filing this lawsuit will do nothing to help them get assistance quickly," Wood said. "We are working collaboratively with DOL to provide them access to earnings data and are doing everything we can to help drivers get the assistance they deserve."

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