Judge delays new minimum pay rates for NYC app-based food delivery workers

Judge delays food delivery worker pay raise

New York City was ordered by a judge to temporarily delay new minimum pay standards for app-based food delivery workers. The order came Friday, a day after city officials were sued by Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub and Relay Delivery.

NEW YORK - A pay raise giving New York City's 60,000 food app delivery workers close to $18 an hour starting next week has been temporarily paused after Uber, Door Dash, GrubHub and other online and mobile food ordering and delivery services filed a lawsuit to prevent the raise from happening.

The delivery apps lawyers say the companies could be irreparably harmed by wage increases in the new law. '

"The City’s entire rule depends on the false assumption that restaurants make no money on deliveries - it must be paused before damaging restaurants, consumers, and the couriers it purports to protect," Uber spokesperson Josh Gold said.

Advocates for food ap delivery workers are upset by the decision.

"We're extremely disappointed that the apps are playing this old trick to in an attempt to delay the implementation of a minimum pay that is aimed to uplift thousands of workers and New Yorkers who are pretty much surviving on poverty wages," said Ligia Guallpa, co-executive director of the Workers Justice Project.

"This is a first of its kind, and it was implemented in New York because these workers are really not in particular employees. They're really more like independent contractors," Seth Berenzweig, a business and compliance law attorney told FOX 5 NY. "So the local legislators determined that they needed special protection. If this law is passed, it will probably end up being a template and a blueprint for a wave of these kinds of rules that will probably start to come up throughout the United States."