Plaintiffs amend suit against TripAdvisor

Web content editors allege firings were retaliation for filing

The Web content editors suing TripAdvisor LLC have amended their class-action complaint to charge the Newton-based travel website with retaliating by firing them after their lawsuit was filed.

Shannon Liss-Riordan, attorney for the editors, yesterday estimated that hundreds of them were e-mailed by TripAdivsor this week and in January and told their services were no longer required. Many were replaced by temporary workers, Liss-Riordan said.

The original complaint, filed in July, alleged the company had misclassified them as independent contractors and not as employees entitled to benefits under state law. The editors wrote articles and edited user-generated reviews of hotels and restaurants.

A scheduling conference for the case has been set for May in US District Court in Boston.

The amended complaint said TripAdvisor terminated an unspecified number of Web content editors this year, though it rehired some as employees. It seeks unspecified damages and a declaratory judgment that the editors should have been considered employees.

Spokesman Brian Payea yesterday said TripAdvisor policy is to not comment on legal matters.

By firing the editors, Liss-Riordan said, the company was tacitly admitting they should have been classified as employees. "This is an acknowledgement that they had wrongly classified these people as independent contractors," she said. "We disagree with the remedy. We think they should have been converted to employees."

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.