UPDATE: As of December 5, 2022, temporary service rules for the City and County of San Francisco have ended. Find more information here.

City Attorney Chiu sues Qwick for misclassifying hospitality workers

SAN FRANCISCO (August 31, 2023) — San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced today that he has filed a lawsuit against Qwick, an on-demand hospitality staffing company, for illegally misclassifying its workers and denying them guaranteed protections, wages, and benefits. The lawsuit, brought on behalf of the People of the State of California and the City and County of San Francisco, alleges Qwick’s model of treating hotel and restaurant workers—including bussers, dishwashers, servers—as independent contractors is illegal and has dire consequences for workers, law-abiding competing businesses, and the broader public.

“As Labor Day approaches, we honor the contributions of workers throughout the history of the labor movement, while standing up to protect hard-earned rights from being eviscerated by new business models. Hospitality work is grueling, and our hotel and restaurant workers deserve to be treated fairly,” said City Attorney Chiu. “There is nothing special about Qwick’s business model. Qwick is inequality disguised as innovation, a staffing company with an app that is in flagrant violation of labor and employment laws. It uses convenience and flexibility to mask its decision to deny workers their rights. If this illegal business model is allowed to take hold, hundreds of thousands of positions in the food and beverage industry risk illegal misclassification, and hospitality workers will be pushed into poverty.”

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