Reuters Journalists Launch Class Action for Misclassification

Wednesday, October 14, 2015 | 0

Staff members at the news agency Reuters have filed a class-action lawsuit claiming to have been wrongly classified as independent contractors, which denied them basic benefits, including workers' compensation coverage.

Reporter Phillip Furey, the lead plaintiff, alleges the agency denied him overtime, vacation, health benefits and meal breaks for 10 years, according to a report in the news agency, courthousenews.com.

The suit claims Thompson Reuters and Reuters America "willfully misclassified plaintiff and other journalists as independent contractors in order to maximize profits at the expense of journalists. Through the misclassification scheme, defendants avoid the costs of providing workers' compensation to their own journalists, further denying them of much needed compensation in the event of work-related sickness or injury," reads the claim.

All journalists -- reporters, photographers and videographers -- who worked for Reuters in the past four years have joined the class action, according to courthousenews.

They are seeking restitution, unpaid wages and interest and an injunction against them being misclassified as independent contractors.