Agreement requires temporary staffing company to pay back thousands of California workers and reclassify them as employees
SAN FRANCISCO (January 17, 2025) — San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced today that he has a secured a stipulated judgment against GigSmart, a temporary staffing company, that requires the company to pay restitution to its workers and convert them to employees, ensuring they receive the full range of employee benefits and protections. Upon being notified they were misclassifying their gig workers as independent contractors instead of employees, GigSmart cooperated with the investigation and agreed to this quick resolution.

The final judgment and injunction, approved by the San Francisco Superior Court yesterday, requires GigSmart to pay its California workers $703,000 in restitution and ensures that all future shifts are staffed by employees. Going forward, these employees will immediately be entitled to all state and local workplace protections and benefits, including overtime pay, paid sick leave, paid family leave, and workers’ compensation insurance, among others. GigSmart will also pay the City $100,000 in civil penalties.
In February 2024, City Attorney Chiu secured the first-of-its-kind injunction in California requiring a staffing company, Qwick, to permanently reclassify thousands of workers and pay restitution and civil penalties. The City Attorney reached a similar partial judgment with WorkWhile in December 2024. The GigSmart agreement marks the third settlement of its kind that permanently reclassifies workers as employees and ensures a level playing field for law-abiding competitors in the staffing industry. Across these three cases, the City Attorney’s Office has secured over $3.9 million in relief benefiting thousands of workers across California.
“We appreciate GigSmart’s willingness to come to the table early to find a solution that reclassifies these workers and provides them fair restitution,” said City Attorney Chiu. “Worker misclassification causes great harm to our communities and is unfair to businesses that play by the rules. GigSmart ultimately made the right choice here, and we hope others follow suit.”
“Once again, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu has raised the bar for labor law enforcement, showing true leadership in holding corporations accountable for violating workers’ rights,” said Lorena Gonzalez, President of California Federation of Labor Unions. “Misclassification cheats workers, responsible businesses, and taxpayers. This judgment sends a clear message to companies that profit from misclassification: labor law violators will be brought to justice.”
“With this case, City Attorney Chiu and his team have shown leadership in effectively standing up for workers,” said Terri Gerstein, Director of the NYU Wagner Labor Initiative at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. “With a new federal administration days away, we need more action by state and local government to protect working people and curb corporate wrongdoing. The GigSmart resolution is a great example of how local government can play an impactful role in creating a level playing field for law-abiding companies and most importantly, in improving people’s lives.”
Background
GigSmart is a Delaware-based temporary staffing company that has been operating in California and San Francisco since at least September 2019. Through its app, GigSmart provides client businesses with workers, hired and paid by GigSmart directly, to fill empty shifts for a variety of different roles, including general laborers, package handlers, event staff, and merchandisers. GigSmart previously treated its “Shift Gig” workers as independent contractors, but they are GigSmart employees under California law.
GigSmart engaged in discussions with the City Attorney’s Office and reached a resolution that ensures all Shift Gig opportunities offered in California will be performed by employees and GigSmart must allow workers to apply to become employees. As a result, these workers will be paid their overtime premiums, will earn accrued sick leave, and will no longer pay fees for insurance-like products. GigSmart will also pay $703,000 to its workers to remedy its misclassification.
This case was resolved by the Office’s Worker Protection Team, established by City Attorney Chiu in 2022. The Team is staffed by Royce Chang, Ian Eliasoph, Hannah Giorgi, Matthew Goldberg, Maureen Slack, and Lauren Tantriella. Bianca Rojo and Chris Manitsoudis provided additional support on this matter. The Team’s mission is to protect the rights of workers in San Francisco and California with an emphasis on combating systemic business practices that exploit marginalized workers. Building on the Office’s longstanding leadership in affirmative litigation, the Team investigates and litigates instances of wage theft, employee misclassification, and other abusive workplace practices.
The case is People of the State of California v. GigSmart, Inc., et al, San Francisco Superior Court, Case No. CGC-24-620547. The Judgment and Injunction can be found here.
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