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Drivers say Uber charged passengers more than the drivers realised,and pocketed the difference.Credit:AP

The company did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit,which was first reported by Bloomberg Law,says that the group of drivers is owed an estimated $US5 million ($7.2 million). Three Uber drivers are named in the suit,Levon Aleksanian,Sonam Lama,and Harjit Khatra. They asked a federal judge to approve the class action for the nearly 100,000 drivers who were affected.

The lawsuit is part of a wave of attempts to strengthen the hands - and bolster the wages - of so called gig economy workers.

In New York City,attention has swelled on the plight of drivers,about 78,000 of whom work for the four main ridesharing apps. In 2018,eight professional drivers committed suicide,including one,Doug Schifter,who killed himself with a shotgun in front of City Hall after writing a Facebook post about the financial hardship he faced.

The city approved minimum wage protections for app-based drivers at the end of the year,requiring they get paid $US17 an hour for their work,the first for any major city in the United States.

In California,a state bill that was recently signed into law attempts to force companies like Lyft and Uber to classify their workers as employees,giving them access to a wider range of rights and protections they are not currently afforded.

Similar proposals are being studied in states like New York and New Jersey.

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The Washington Post