Mamdani Secures a Multimillion-Dollar Settlement Over Delivery Worker Wage Theft
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Politics
/ February 2, 2026
Mamdani Secures a Multimillion-Dollar Settlement Over Delivery Worker Wage Theft
Uber Eats, HungryPanda, and Fantuan also agreed to reinstate 10,000 wrongfully deactivated workers.
Prajwal Bhat
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Zohran Mamdani announcing more than $5 million in worker restitution and penalties secured from major restaurant delivery app companies, on January 30, 2026.
(Katie Godowski / MediaPunch / IPX via AP)
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Friday that his administration had secured a $5.2 million settlement with three delivery app companies that failed to pay workers minimum wage in 2023 and 2024. The settlement marks the latest action in an aggressive enforcement push against gig companies since Mamdani took office.
Mamdani announced the settlement while surrounded by delivery workers at a food hall in Long Island City. “This is the most expensive city in the United States of America, and we want to use every tool at our disposal to improve working conditions for delivery workers,” he told The Nation.
The three companies—Uber Eats, Fantuan, and HungryPanda—will pay nearly 50,000 workers who the city found were cheated out of wages when customers canceled orders. Under the city’s minimum-wage law, delivery workers must be paid for the time they’ve already spent on a delivery even if the customer cancels the order. The city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) determined that all three companies failed to follow these rules.
DCWP also found that Uber Eats used automated rules to deactivate workers from the app even when cancellations weren’t their fault. The company does not publicly disclose the threshold for automatic deactivation. The settlement will reverse these wrongful deactivations, with Uber agreeing to reinstate up to 10,000 workers who were cut off between December 2023 and September 2024.
Al Noman, a 37-year-old delivery worker from Bangladesh who was deactivated by Uber Eats, estimated he was late delivering a few out of over a hundred orders. “I am left with no information about why I was deactivated from the app. I went to the Uber office and all they said was sorry, we cannot help you,” he said.
Uber Eats claimed it could deactivate workers like Noman because they were considered to be independent contractors rather than employees. It didn’t seem to matter that the company had decided how much they were paid for every trip and controlled when and how they could work. As independent contractors, Uber Eats owed them none of the protections that come with a real job: overtime pay, health insurance, paid …
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Mamdani Secures a Multimillion-Dollar Settlement Over Delivery Worker Wage Theft
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Current Issue
Politics
/ February 2, 2026
Mamdani Secures a Multimillion-Dollar Settlement Over Delivery Worker Wage Theft
Uber Eats, HungryPanda, and Fantuan also agreed to reinstate 10,000 wrongfully deactivated workers.
Prajwal Bhat
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
Zohran Mamdani announcing more than $5 million in worker restitution and penalties secured from major restaurant delivery app companies, on January 30, 2026.
(Katie Godowski / MediaPunch / IPX via AP)
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Friday that his administration had secured a $5.2 million settlement with three delivery app companies that failed to pay workers minimum wage in 2023 and 2024. The settlement marks the latest action in an aggressive enforcement push against gig companies since Mamdani took office.
Mamdani announced the settlement while surrounded by delivery workers at a food hall in Long Island City. “This is the most expensive city in the United States of America, and we want to use every tool at our disposal to improve working conditions for delivery workers,” he told The Nation.
The three companies—Uber Eats, Fantuan, and HungryPanda—will pay nearly 50,000 workers who the city found were cheated out of wages when customers canceled orders. Under the city’s minimum-wage law, delivery workers must be paid for the time they’ve already spent on a delivery even if the customer cancels the order. The city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) determined that all three companies failed to follow these rules.
DCWP also found that Uber Eats used automated rules to deactivate workers from the app even when cancellations weren’t their fault. The company does not publicly disclose the threshold for automatic deactivation. The settlement will reverse these wrongful deactivations, with Uber agreeing to reinstate up to 10,000 workers who were cut off between December 2023 and September 2024.
Al Noman, a 37-year-old delivery worker from Bangladesh who was deactivated by Uber Eats, estimated he was late delivering a few out of over a hundred orders. “I am left with no information about why I was deactivated from the app. I went to the Uber office and all they said was sorry, we cannot help you,” he said.
Uber Eats claimed it could deactivate workers like Noman because they were considered to be independent contractors rather than employees. It didn’t seem to matter that the company had decided how much they were paid for every trip and controlled when and how they could work. As independent contractors, Uber Eats owed them none of the protections that come with a real job: overtime pay, health insurance, paid …
Mamdani Secures a Multimillion-Dollar Settlement Over Delivery Worker Wage Theft
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Mamdani Secures a Multimillion-Dollar Settlement Over Delivery Worker Wage Theft
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Current Issue
Politics
/ February 2, 2026
Mamdani Secures a Multimillion-Dollar Settlement Over Delivery Worker Wage Theft
Uber Eats, HungryPanda, and Fantuan also agreed to reinstate 10,000 wrongfully deactivated workers.
Prajwal Bhat
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
Zohran Mamdani announcing more than $5 million in worker restitution and penalties secured from major restaurant delivery app companies, on January 30, 2026.
(Katie Godowski / MediaPunch / IPX via AP)
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said on Friday that his administration had secured a $5.2 million settlement with three delivery app companies that failed to pay workers minimum wage in 2023 and 2024. The settlement marks the latest action in an aggressive enforcement push against gig companies since Mamdani took office.
Mamdani announced the settlement while surrounded by delivery workers at a food hall in Long Island City. “This is the most expensive city in the United States of America, and we want to use every tool at our disposal to improve working conditions for delivery workers,” he told The Nation.
The three companies—Uber Eats, Fantuan, and HungryPanda—will pay nearly 50,000 workers who the city found were cheated out of wages when customers canceled orders. Under the city’s minimum-wage law, delivery workers must be paid for the time they’ve already spent on a delivery even if the customer cancels the order. The city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) determined that all three companies failed to follow these rules.
DCWP also found that Uber Eats used automated rules to deactivate workers from the app even when cancellations weren’t their fault. The company does not publicly disclose the threshold for automatic deactivation. The settlement will reverse these wrongful deactivations, with Uber agreeing to reinstate up to 10,000 workers who were cut off between December 2023 and September 2024.
Al Noman, a 37-year-old delivery worker from Bangladesh who was deactivated by Uber Eats, estimated he was late delivering a few out of over a hundred orders. “I am left with no information about why I was deactivated from the app. I went to the Uber office and all they said was sorry, we cannot help you,” he said.
Uber Eats claimed it could deactivate workers like Noman because they were considered to be independent contractors rather than employees. It didn’t seem to matter that the company had decided how much they were paid for every trip and controlled when and how they could work. As independent contractors, Uber Eats owed them none of the protections that come with a real job: overtime pay, health insurance, paid …
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