Named Uber plaintiff says he's pulling out of suit
SAN FRANCISCO — The Uber driver whose name is on a lawsuit for an up-to $100 million settlement now says he’s pulling out.
Douglas O’Connor, who is the O’Connor in the O’Connor v. Uber Technologies Inc. class action suit, filed documents Monday objecting to the settlement with the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company.
"I am compelled to submit this declaration objecting to the class action settlement on behalf of myself and on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of other Uber Drivers in the State of California — and throughout the Country — who were at first given hope and a voice by the lawsuit bearing my name but now feel utterly betrayed and sold-out by an unjust settlement result that only benefits Uber," O'Connor’s declaration said.
The original suit, filed in 2011, said Uber misclassified its drivers as independent contractors when they were actually employees who should be reimbursed for expenditures or losses incurred during the discharge of their duties.
A possible settlement in the suit was reached on April 22. It allowed Uber to continue to consider its drivers as independent contractors, but paid them $84 million, with a second payment of $16 million if the company goes public and its valuation increases one and a half times from that of Dec. 2015.
The settlement must still be approved by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Chen.
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Payments to drivers in the settlement were to be calculated based on the number of miles they drove with Uber and whether they opted out of Uber's arbitration clause in its 2013 and 2014 driver agreements.
Drivers who drove very few miles could get as little as $24, while drivers who drove a great deal would get on average $8,000, said Shannon Liss-Riordan, a partner at Lichten & Liss-Riordan, the Boston firm that brought the class action suits.
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O'Connor's objection states that he was pressured to quickly sign the 100-page settlement document and that he feels it shortchanged Uber drivers by not dealing directly with whether they should be classified as employees.
In an email to USA TODAY, Liss-Riordan said that O’Conner’s statements were untrue and that he was not one of the appointed class representatives in the class action suit.
Even if he had been, the decision about whether the settlement will be approved is up to Judge Chen, not O’Connor, she said.
Riordan said her office has been contacted by more than 2,000 Uber drivers asking how they can get their portion of the settlement, and about 50 who were angry or disappointed with the settlement.
“I believed this to be a fair and adequate settlement in light of the risks we were facing, particularly at the Ninth Circuit, but if the court disagrees for any reason, I am more than happy to plow ahead with the case and do what I have to do,” she said.
Uber declined to comment.