San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin and Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón jointly filed a lawsuit against Handy Technologies Inc. alleging it misclassifies its workers as independent contractors instead of employees, denying them workplace protections such as minimum wage rights, paid sick leave, disability insurance and unemployment insurance. Handy, a B2C online work services provider, offers residential cleaning and handyman services.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court, alleges Handy’s workers are employees and that the company is in violation of California’s Assembly Bill 5 as well as a California Supreme Court’s decision from April 2018 — the Dynamex decision — which invoked the more-strict ABC test for independent contractor misclassification. It seeks restitution for Handy workers throughout the Golden State, a permanent halt to the misclassification and civil penalties.

“Companies like Handy cannot be permitted to unlawfully label workers as independent contractors in order to cut costs and deprive workers of their legal right to workplace protections,” Boudin said in a press release. “All Californians are harmed when corporations exploit their employees through misclassification; doing so gives those corporations an unfair advantage over law-abiding businesses by shifting the costs of their legal responsibilities onto our state’s taxpayers.”

Handy is headquartered in New York City but has tens of thousands of workers providing labor and services in California. It is included in SIA’s report, “The Gig Economy and Talent Platform Landscape.”

In a statement provided to FOX Business, a Handy spokesperson said the company believes the lawsuit “has no merit.”

“It is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the law and the rights of Handy and the Pros who use its service,” the spokesperson said. “Handy complies with all laws and regulations in California and elsewhere, and we will vigorously defend ourselves in court.”