In the Biblical story of Noah’s Ark, a world-engulfing flood destroys everyone except Noah, his family, and his mini zoo. A similar story appears in the Quran, and a much earlier world-engulfing flood was described in the Epic of Gilgamesh, a Babylonian poem dating back to the 19th Century BC, featuring Utnapishtim as our hero, a fellow who was awarded with immortality but whose name (unfortunately, IMHO) appears much less frequently on the Social Security Administration’s list of most popular baby names than our more recent pal, Noah.

A more recent trend in flooding comes from our friends in the plaintiffs’ bar. A popular tactic by companies wishing to avoid class action misclassification lawsuits has been to require independent contractors to sign arbitration agreements with class action waivers. These agreements force misclassification clams into arbitration on an individual basis, where each individual single claim has little value. By forcing claims into individual arbitration, there’s much less incentive for plaintiffs’ lawyers to take these cases since each case is worth very little. It’s only in the class action arena that these claims are worth big money.

But according to a recent article in Bloomberg Law, some of the larger, more organized plaintiffs’ firms are fighting back by flooding companies with mass arbitration filings. Bloomberg reports that more than 12,000 Uber drivers have filed for arbitration since August 2018. With filing fees (to be borne by Uber, per agreement) at $1,500 apiece, it will reportedly cost the ride-sharing company more than $18 million in filing fees just to process these claims in arbitration. And that’s before there’s any discovery or hearing.

Few plaintiff’s firms are capable of waging war on this scale, but a select few can do it — and they are doing it. While there are many advantages to mandatory arbitration agreements for companies that use lots of independent contractors, this new flood tactic may cause some companies to think twice about their approach.

Companies using arbitration agreements for their independent contractors should be aware of this trend. We’ll see if this flooding tactic becomes more and more common, or if it’s used only about as frequently as 21st century parents name their little boys Utnapashtim.

For more information on joint employment, gig economy issues, and other labor and employment developments to watch in 2019, join me in Philadelphia on Feb. 26, or Chicago on Mar. 21 for the 2019 BakerHostetler Master Class on Labor Relations and Employment Law: Meeting Today’s Challenges. Advance registration is required. Please email me if you plan to attend, tlebowitz@bakerlaw.com. If you list my name in your RSVP, I will have your registration fee waived.

© 2019 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.