Uber drivers are workers, not self employed - UK Supreme Court

[Jaysen]

A confirmation from the supreme court:

Uber drivers must be treated as workers rather than self-employed, the UK's Supreme Court has ruled.

The decision means tens of thousands of Uber drivers are set to be entitled to minimum wage and holiday pay.

The ruling could leave the ride-hailing app facing a hefty compensation bill, and have wider consequences for the gig economy.

In a long-running legal battle, Uber had appealed to the Supreme Court after losing three earlier rounds.

Uber drivers are workers not self-employed, Supreme Court rules

The decision could mean thousands of Uber drivers are set to receive minimum wage and holiday pay.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Daniel Boden]

A confirmation from the supreme court:

Uber drivers are workers not self-employed, Supreme Court rules

The decision could mean thousands of Uber drivers are set to receive minimum wage and holiday pay.

www.bbc.co.uk

Will be very interesting to see the ramifications of this going forwards!

 

[Holly]

Thanks for sharing! This is interesting 🤔

I can imagine the costs of minimum wage/holiday pay/pension scheme will be passed down to customers, which may be difficult if demand for Uber is still low due to Covid!

This is merely speculation but I think the competition for Uber driver jobs, and potentially other roles in the gig economy, may also increase as the “worker” benefits may appeal to more people.

 

[Jaysen]

Thanks for sharing! This is interesting 🤔

I can imagine the costs of minimum wage/holiday pay/pension scheme will be passed down to customers, which may be difficult if demand for Uber is still low due to Covid!

This is merely speculation but I think the competition for Uber driver jobs, and potentially other roles in the gig economy, may also increase as the “worker” benefits may appeal to more people.

Great points - I suspect you're right on both of these counts.

I think it's a great example of why clearly defined legal terms matter and the steps companies will go to to ensure they 'technically' fit within a certain definition. As we've seen, if they don't, the costs can be very significant.

 

[M&A]

The ruling shows however that employers cannot contract out of their obligations, and reaffirms Autoclenz. Ordinary contractual principles don't always apply to employment contracts, the tribunal is entitled to look beyond the scope of the contract to establish the true nature of their agreement. The only way for them to establish that the drivers are independent contractors going forward, is to substantially change the degree of control the company exercises over them.

 

[Dheepa]

Thanks for sharing! This is interesting 🤔

I can imagine the costs of minimum wage/holiday pay/pension scheme will be passed down to customers, which may be difficult if demand for Uber is still low due to Covid!

This is merely speculation but I think the competition for Uber driver jobs, and potentially other roles in the gig economy, may also increase as the “worker” benefits may appeal to more people.

On your first point, I think it's interesting to contrast this with Uber's position in the US.

Late last year Uber was able to get around a the 2019 California state assembly law on classifying gig economy workers as employees through a referendum. Voters essentially voted in favour of a middle ground where Uber would provide things like healthcare subsidies and accident insurance. The end cost of this has already been passed down to consumers but it was significantly less than what would have been the case if the workers had to be given full employment protection. While the UK judgement is evidently not something that can be worked around in this way, it will be interesting to see what kind of strategies Uber adopts to ensure that prices remain competitive despite the additional costs.

If I'm not mistaken JustEat has recently started offering minimum wage/pension contributions/sick pay to some of its workers. The drawback to this is that they are doing this through an outsourcing agency which while cuts costs for them, raises concerns on how well drivers rights are being protected anyway. I think there's a high chance Uber could try to adopt a similar model to comply with the judgement.