Washington DC drags Amazon to court for 'yoinking' driver tips
- Reference: 1670454015
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/12/07/washington_amazon_tips_lawsuit/
- Source link:
Amazon Flex allows folks to make money by delivering packages for it using their own cars. The service has been running since 2015 and the drivers are considered independent contractors. Adverts recruiting workers [1]claim they can make anywhere from $18 to $25 an hour, not including tips.
But Amazon is accused of sneakily deducting a "large portion" of the tips drivers are given from their hourly wages in 2016, meaning those drivers didn't actually receive the extra money they are owed, Racine claimed. The e-commerce giant is not only stealing from drivers, it's also lying to shoppers who believe 100 per cent of the tips they pay are going toward delivery drivers in Washington DC, the lawsuit alleges.
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"Workers in the District of Columbia and throughout our country are too often taken advantage of and not paid their hard-earned wages," Racine [3]said in a statement. "What's more, consumers need to know where their tips are going. This suit is about providing workers the tips they are owed and telling consumers the truth."
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"Amazon, one of the world's wealthiest companies, certainly does not need to take tips that belong to workers. Amazon can and should do better."
[6]You're Shipt outta luck: App sued for treating delivery workers as contractors
[7]Amazon 'punishes' sellers who dare offer lower prices on other marketplaces
[8]What, Uber charges disabled people fees for taking a while to get into their ride? Doesn't seem fair, says Uncle Sam
[9]Amazon fears it could run out of US warehouse workers by 2024
In 2019, Amazon was [10]sued by the FTC, America's consumer watchdog, for allegedly cheating drivers out of more than $61.7 million in payments. In 2021, Amazon [11]settled the case and promised to return millions of bucks to more than 140,000 delivery contractors. The FTC claimed Amazon stopped stealing people's tips only when the biz titan realized it was under federal investigation.
As part of that settlement, the mega-corp admitted no wrongdoing. But the DC AG isn't happy about that. "[Amazon] has thus far escaped appropriate accountability, including any civil penalties, for consumer harm," Racine said. Under the District of Columbia's Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA), companies are prohibited from misleading consumers by withholding information about their products or services, and it's under this legislation that he hopes to hit Amazon for shenanigans regarding tips.
The attorney general claims Amazon violated CPPA by lying to shoppers about tipping delivery drivers, specifically by boasting that 100 per cent of the money would go to workers. Racine wants judges to sanction Amazon for every instance it violated CPPA in DC, and to issue a court order that would ensure the multi-billion-dollar multinational can never take drivers' tips again.
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Amazon downplayed Racine's lawsuit and said it had already paid back money owed to drivers as part of the wider FTC settlement.
"Nothing is more important to us than customer trust," Maria Boschetti, a Amazon PR spokesperson, told The Register in a statement. "This lawsuit involves a practice we changed three years ago and is without merit – all of the customer tips at issue were already paid to drivers as part of a settlement last year with the FTC." ®
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[1] https://hiring.amazon.com/job-opportunities/flex-driver-jobs#/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y5FvcAs1ILMV-xIhn1WhywAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://oag.dc.gov/release/ag-racine-sues-amazon-stealing-tips-delivery
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5FvcAs1ILMV-xIhn1WhywAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y5FvcAs1ILMV-xIhn1WhywAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/27/shipt_gig_lawsuit_dc/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/15/amazon_california_competition/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/11/uber_slapped_with_a_federal/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/22/amazon_labor_pool_shortage/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/02/amazon_tips_settlement/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/03/amazon_drivers_tips/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5FvcAs1ILMV-xIhn1WhywAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The sad thing is that the best the govt can come up with is that they misled the customers.
Not that the corporation stole from the staff, and not the richly deserved charges of conspiracy and racketeering against the managers who plotted to do so.
It is time to gun for those responsible, even if they can't get convictions.
Cash is king. If you want to tip your driver, give them some unambiguous paper.
Once the money goes into an electronic system, all best are off.
Tips?
I admit to finding the American tipping culture strange, but tipping the delivery driver seems to me an extra level of bizarre. Where is the added service that you're rewarding - that the box wasn't used as a football and/or stolen?
Do you tip the FedEx person too? The UPS person delivering your letters?
Re: Tips?
As far as I can tell, the tipping system works as follows: someone decides to hire people but pay well below what they otherwise should, and they label this with a tip box on the interface that people correctly translate to "You wouldn't want the person doing the work here to be paid almost nothing, but unless you give money here, they will". Then that box never moves, even when things change such as wages increasing or the company deciding it will make the part they pay dependent on how much tip there is. In the end, the user has no clue how much the person will get paid if they don't tip.
On a side note, I ordered some electronic components from a small site about three years ago. After selecting my components and paying for rather expensive shipping given this was before the COVID-snarled transportation times, I was brought to a page asking if I wanted to tip. I don't know who would have been paid if I selected to do so. I wonder how much free money they got by putting that option into their otherwise completely standard online checkout process.
colour me surprised, a major Corp, possibly the biggest with a consumer facing side, trying to rip off the TIPS their people get ffs, you couldn't make this up, if thus was a film scene, NO ONE would believe it
the sooner they are forced to pay PROPORTIONAL fines the better, not a million, as that is just loose change to them, less than the cost of 'doing business'
rip them for BILLIONS in fines, see if they get it then
scummy Co, think they are bigger than the law, bigger than anything