Deceptive Practices in Food Delivery?

A recent investigation has uncovered that Grubhub allegedly devised a plan to deprive its couriers of the minimum wage they are entitled to.

As reported by Streetsblog, in 2024, Grubhub began outsourcing a portion of its delivery orders to Relay, a delivery platform that is not subject to New York City’s delivery-app minimum wage regulations.

Legally, from 2024 onwards, couriers delivering for Grubhub were supposed to earn more than $19 per hour. However, due to Grubhub’s questionable maneuver, the couriers likely worked for Relay, earning just $13 an hour.

Streetsblog asserts that this strategy was employed by Grubhub to sidestep the worker protection laws in New York City.

An internal email sent to Grubhub’s tech workers and obtained by Streetsblog states:

“The partnership [with Relay] arises primarily to stem elevated driver pay costs in NYC, which have more than doubled since the new driver pay law was introduced.”

Passed in 2021, the aforementioned law forces app companies to pay their workers a guaranteed hourly rate.

The law initially required companies to pay delivery workers $17.96 an hour, which was raised to $19.96 in April 2025 and is now $21.44 per hour. This wage will continue to be adjusted annually for inflation.

This wage is intended to support and protect drivers who operate as private contractors and lack employee benefits such as health insurance or workers’ compensation.

Predictably, and with draconian flair, DoorDash, Uber, and Grubhub sued the city in an unsuccessful bid to stop the law.

However, Relay’s business model was deemed distinct enough for a judge to grant an injunction allowing the company to ignore the law, creating a legal loophole that Grubhub would ruthlessly exploit.

During this time, Grubhub workers were unceremoniously kicked off the app without explanation, a deactivation that led many to sign up for Relay, which paid its private contractors just $13.35 per hour, meaning they did the exact same work for considerably less pay.

To add insult to financial injustice, Relay workers were sent on longer trips, further violating the city’s worker protection laws.

This so-called “partnership” between Grubhub and Relay began in January 2024, and according to former Grubhub employees, 20 to 30 percent of orders were outsourced to Relay.

According to an internal email, Grubhub expected to save 39 percent on the cost of each order sent to Relay, amounting to around $5 million annually.

“Grubhub wanted to use Relay because they wouldn’t have to pay for the workers’ time. Since Relay was not subject to the pay standard, they could take advantage of free labor that way,” New School economist James Parrott, who helped write the minimum pay standard law, told Streetsblog. “It’s a pretty obvious move to sidetrack the pay requirement.”

But wait, it gets worse.

In November 2024, Grubhub and Relay were acquired by the startup Wonder.

Within months of the purchase, Grubhub laid off 20% of its workforce, and the loophole that allowed it to cheat its workers out of a fair wage closed, resulting in the company shuttering Relay in NYC, leaving thousands of delivery workers out of work.

Recently, Grubhub began a three-month test program that will deliver food by drone to customers in New Jersey.

The program uses Dexa’s DE-2020, a fully automated delivery aircraft designed to transport goods directly to customers’ homes, presumably putting even more couriers out of work.

A climber found himself in a perilous situation after falling 30 feet down a mountainside in Colorado. Fortunately, a dedicated team of firefighters orchestrated a complex high-angle rescue to bring him to safety, according to official reports.

The rescue operation commenced around 2:17 p.m. on Monday when emergency crews were dispatched to North Cheyenne Cañon. The climber was stranded in challenging terrain, perched more than 400 feet above the road, stated the Colorado Springs Fire Department.

Upon arrival, firefighters ascended the steep and rugged landscape to reach the injured man. They quickly administered treatment for his critical injuries as they prepared for the extraction process.

In a bid to safely transport the climber, rescue teams constructed a high-angle rope system. For nearly three hours, specialized teams worked diligently to navigate the climber down the mountainside using a rescue basket, ensuring his safety throughout the descent.

The climber was ultimately located and rescued after several hours of intense and coordinated efforts by the rescue crews on Monday, March 30, 2026, as reported by the Colorado Springs Fire Department.

A drone team provided aerial guidance to help crews find the safest route, while whole blood was staged at the base of the mountain in case it was needed.

A drone team provided crews with aerial guidance to ascend the rugged mountainside using the safest routes. (Colorado Springs Fire Department)

The climber was ultimately airlifted to a local hospital. No updates on the climber’s injuries or his identity were immediately provided.

Firefighters, however, did provide some details about what led to the fall.

The climber suffered critical injuries in the 30-foot fall. Firefighters said he was not wearing a helmet, though did not specify what type of injuries he sustained. (Colorado Springs Fire Department)

“We’ve learned the climber lost his grip while securing himself; the gear failed, and he was not wearing a helmet,” the fire department said.

Officials credited the climber’s partner with “saving crucial time” by calling 911 and helping guide rescuers directly to the injured climber’s location.

Authorities urged climbers to wear proper safety equipment, carry a charged phone and “never hike or climb alone.”

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The son of a doctor from Hawaii recently took the stand to testify against his father, alleging that the latter admitted to attempting to murder his stepmother.

Gerhardt Konig, an anesthesiologist, faces charges of second-degree attempted murder. He is accused of attacking his wife, Arielle Konig, with a rock on the Pali Puka Trail in Oahu on March 24, 2025. Konig has entered a plea of not guilty.

On Tuesday, Emile Konig, Gerhardt’s son, recounted to the court a phone call he received just moments after the purported incident, during which his father allegedly confessed to the crime.

Prosecutor Joel Garner asked Emile, “Can you recall what the defendant said to you during that call, as precisely as possible?”

Emile responded, “He mentioned he wouldn’t be returning to Maui and instructed me to take care of the younger children. He also said Ari, my stepmother, had been unfaithful to him and that he tried to kill her.”

Prosecutors allege Dr. Konig first tried pushing his wife Arielle off a Hawaiian cliffside, and attempted injecting her with a syringe, before repeatedly smashing her head with a jagged rock.

“I asked what was on his shirt, ’cause it looked like I saw splatters of something on his shirt, and he said, oh it’s just her, meaning Ari’s, blood,” Emile Konig testified.

A pair of hikers say they found the couple- with Arielle covered in blood.

An hour later – Emile received another video call from his father- who in court Emile only referred to as “the defendant.”

“He asked me if I had told anybody and I said yes and I told him who I had told, and then – he said that he was just gonna jump and said that a couple times,” Emile Konig said.

He said the second call ended with his father saying: “I’m gonna go before the police catch me.”

Dr. Konig’s defense team says Arielle attacked him first after he confronted her about an emotional affair- and they say he hit her with the rock in self-defense.

During Emile’s cross examination, they pointed out there were some parts of the calls that he couldn’t remember.

Prosecutor Joel Garner then asked: “is there any doubt in your mind about the defendant telling you he tried to kill Ariel?”

Emile Konig responded: “no.”

The big question now is whether Dr. Konig will take the stand in his own defense.

ABC News contributed to this report.