Major class-action lawsuit filed against surge AI for intentional misclassification of workers and denying workers fair wages
Today, Clarkson Law Firm, the prominent California-based public interest firm, filed a class action lawsuit against Surge AI in the Superior Court of California for the County of San Francisco. The suit, filed on behalf of a Surge AI worker representing himself and the class, alleges that Surge AI is deliberately misclassifying its Data Annotator workers as independent contractors, rather than employees, thereby denying them the protections and benefits that they are entitled to as employees.
“As AI becomes more integrated in the lives of many and tech companies look to better one another in the AI race, we cannot leave workers behind. We must ensure those building and training these language models are protected,” said Ryan Clarkson, managing partner of Clarkson Law Firm. “Tech giants are making billions of dollars off the backs of Surge AI workers who are putting in thousands of hours of human labor with little pay and benefits. If we don’t act quickly to stop worker exploitation, companies driven by profit will continue to treat workers unfairly.”
To keep up with the seismic growth in demand for large language models (LLMs), Surge AI’s data annotators are performing work that forms the backbone of its business, and they are responsible for training AI systems for major tech companies such as OpenAI and Meta. Despite the value Data Annotators add to Surge’s business, the company knowingly and willfully misclassifies these employees, all to receive a major windfall in labor costs, depriving employees of millions of dollars in compensation.
“The AI industry is booming, and it is being built on the backs of countless human workers who train these AI models – yet multi-billion dollar tech companies are putting the tech over their workers’ livelihoods. Surge AI’s willful decision to exploit its workers for profit is part of a broader trend we’ll continue to see as tech giants race to dominate the AI space, unless we hold them accountable,” said Glenn Danas, partner at Clarkson Law Firm. “Surge AI is sidestepping California’s labor laws and bringing in enormous profits by deliberately avoiding paying the wages and benefits of the tens of thousands of Californians who depend on their Data Annotator jobs as their primary source of income. At its core, what Surge AI is doing is wage theft on a massive scale.”
As the complaint details, Surge AI maintains rigid control over its workers, demanding off-the-clock work for training and project familiarization. Despite being classified as independent contractors, workers have little to no control over basic core aspects of their jobs, including the type of project assigned, the structure and amount of compensation, the client company they were tasked with servicing, the subject matter of their assigned tasks, or the deadlines for completion.
The class action suit filed on behalf of a Surge AI worker seeks to recover unpaid wages, overtime compensation, statutory penalties, interest, injunctive relief, damages, and other equitable remedies under the California Labor Code. The class and its members call on Surge AI to stop this ongoing and unlawful practice and recover the wages to which they are rightfully entitled.
