In November 2018, Gibbs Law Group filed a lawsuit against Handy, on behalf of cleaners and repairmen who allege that Handy underpaid them. According to the lawsuit, Handy allegedly failed to pay its cleaners and repairmen for off-the-clock work, including travel time to and between jobs and any hours worked beyond what was ‘scheduled.’ In addition, the lawsuit states that Handy failed to pay workers full overtime pay, and reimbursement of business expenses, including mileage and cleaning supplies, all of which is required under California labor law.
Case status – California Court of Appeal affirms that the case will proceed in court, not arbitration
After we filed this lawsuit, Handy argued that we could not proceed with the lawsuit in court, and subsequently tried to move our case into arbitration, which is a form of private dispute resolution that takes place outside of the courts. The court rejected Handy’s arguments and decided that our case could remain in court. However, Handy appealed the court’s ruling in 2019, and tried to argue again that the case should be resolved through arbitration. On August 16, 2021, the California Court of Appeal agreed with the original trial court ruling, meaning that the case can remain in court.
Handy allegedly failed to fully compensate service providers
Handy is a company that sends service professionals to people’s homes for things like cleaning, product installation, and home repair. Handy pays its service professionals a flat rate by the job, with each job scheduled to last a certain amount of time. Thus, if a service provider’s rate under Handy’s system is $15/hour, and the job is scheduled to last for three hours, the provider will be paid $45. Because Handy pays by the job, rather than by actual time worked, Handy is allegedly not paying its service professionals for overtime, travel time between jobs, any missed meal and rest breaks, or expenses (like cleaning supplies and transportation).
Under California employment law, employees must be paid for all hours worked and must be reimbursed for business expenses.