A California man named Matthew Elias just filed a class-action lawsuit against Spotify. He claims he worked for the company from 2016 to 2018, and that his position inside the company was mis-classified. Elias filed the lawsuit in his name and on behalf of all others who feel they were similarly wronged. Spotify now faces losing a considerable amount of money as a result of this lawsuit.
While holding the position of “Nonexempt Employee”, he claims that Spotify treated him as an outside contractor. This difference in his position allegedly did not allow him the proper benefits that nonexempt employees regularly have. He was not provided with: rest breaks, appropriate overtime pay and meal breaks. Elias also claims that he was forced to make digital purchases with his own personal money. Spotify has remained silent about the matter to this moment.
Spotify has already filed a request to move the case from a State Court to a Federal Court, as they are registered in Delaware. Moving the case is certainly in favor of Spotify on the case. This year, California passed a law intending to protect contractors from abuses. The new laws have caused these employments to go to other places and leave California for good. You can read the details about this here. These changes have greatly impacted the music industry and for good reasons, since the hiring of musicians is classified as independent contracting.
Spotify’s lawyers also want to move the case to Federal Court due to the large amounts they could be paying. They estimate the damages could mean more than $110,000 only in allegedly owed overtime wages.
