Here's Gawker's Absurd Argument That Its Commenters Aren't Employees

"LongbowMkII" (longbowmkii) 07/11/2015 at 21:07 • Filed to: None

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Gawker Media, the blogging service, oh excuse me technology company that just makes a website and definitely does not employ bloggers , is currently !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . And making sure its employees don’t legally count as employees. In its !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! the company argues 160,000 Kinja Users shouldn’t be able to sue as a class because they are unable to comment using a mobile platform.

All that the users have in common is that they’ve used Gawker’s app (Kinja) at some point in the past six years. And they’re right! Other than internet arguing for a living, being unpaid and uninsured, and making a profit for Gawker Media (Not Blogs You Guys) Inc., that’s the only thing remotely similar about them.

“The reality is that commenters use Kinja on their own terms: they control their use of the app,” the company said in a statement.

Gawker Media goes on to argue that classifying commenters as employees “could force Gawker to restructure its entire business model” by doing things like being liable for their plagarism, reimbursing them for laptop and phone repairs, and paying out for healthcare and worker’s comp. What a disaster.

And, at the same time, commenters would lose the “flexibility” of blogging for multiple blog services—none of which are responsible for them if something goes wrong—just so they can make ends meet, and not taking the breaks they’d be entitled to if they had an employer. Gawker is looking out for them to make sure that nightmare scenario doesn’t happen.

One Kinja Commenter in California is an employee, thanks to a ruling last month from me, but that decision doesn’t apply broadly to Gawker’s entire workforce—sorry, site users who write blogs. A class action proceeding would determine the status of any commenter who wanted to join the suit.

An August hearing will not determine whether all 160,000 Kinja users can sue as a class.

(lead image from !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! ...apparently)

H/T- !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

dogisbadob > LongbowMkII 07/11/2015 at 21:18

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How would anonymous trolls be able to collect their paychecks? :p

LongbowMkII > dogisbadob 07/11/2015 at 21:18

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bitcoins.

...or it would be determined by the class action lawsuit that doesn’t exist.

PatBateman > LongbowMkII 07/11/2015 at 21:20

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We gettin’ paid, bitches!!

dogisbadob > LongbowMkII 07/11/2015 at 21:25

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haha yeah I know :p

not for canada - australian in disguise > LongbowMkII 07/11/2015 at 21:27

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.

DoctorNine > PatBateman 07/11/2015 at 21:37

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Ever since the Hulk Hogan Deathmatch , things gettin’ weird ‘round hurr...

davedave1111 > LongbowMkII 07/11/2015 at 21:45

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This would be a perfect parallel if you had been paid to write that by anti-Kinja lobbyists employed by traditional newspapers.

LongbowMkII > davedave1111 07/11/2015 at 22:02

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lonestranger > not for canada - australian in disguise 07/11/2015 at 22:13

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Still my favourite “Kinja’d” .gif. By the time I thought to begin using this one, Kinja stopped using it:

LongbowMkII > not for canada - australian in disguise 07/12/2015 at 14:23

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I want this in ridiculous slow motion. Mostly so I can see how the tires fit under the bar.

boxrocket > LongbowMkII 07/12/2015 at 16:38

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What about other companies (Road & Track, for instance) that also use Kinja?

Tohru > not for canada - australian in disguise 07/12/2015 at 17:57

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