Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. drivers won the right to immediately receive unemployment insurance benefits after a federal judge ruled New York Department of Labor was taking too long to make payments.
U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall in Brooklyn on Tuesday cited a backlog of claims by the ride-share drivers who sued the state in May, claiming it was either failing to pay their unemployment benefits or taking months to make them, even while other workers got them in as little as two weeks
The judge said there had been "an avoidable and inexcusable delay in the payment of unemployment insurance,” to the drivers and directed the state to create a streamlined process for them to apply for unemployment.