Landmark Ruling: Uber Drivers win Supreme Court Battle
Uber has repeatedly argued that their drivers are self-employed or independent ‘partners’. By employing them in this way, Uber has had no responsibility regarding their driver's holiday pay, sick leave and even minimum wage requirements.
Uber has found itself in the firing lines multiple times because of this relationship with drivers. Ambiguous contracts that appear to side-step basic employment regulations, in place to protect workers, have been widely criticised.
Part of the confusion surrounding an Uber driver's status has stemmed from the varying definitions of employment in the UK. There are three distinct types of employment that someone can be involved in.
There are Employee’s, someone who has a contract of employment and your work is controlled entirely by your employer. There are Workers, who also have a contract of employment but are free to refuse any offer of work without fear of penalty. Finally, there are the Self-Employed, who have total control over how their business engages with others.
The Ruling
The unanimous ruling from the Supreme Court confirms that Uber drivers should be classed as workers and not self-employed. The court confirmed that Uber has a major degree of control in the working lives of its drivers. This was determined by several factors but chiefly that:
Uber set the fare which meant that they dictated how much drivers could earn
Uber set the contract terms and drivers had no say in them
Request for rides is constrained by Uber who can penalise drivers if they reject too many rides
Uber monitors a driver's service through the star rating and can terminate the relationship if after repeated warnings this does not improve
This landmark ruling by the UK Supreme Court could trigger a costly, backdated compensation scheme for Uber. The law firm representing drivers expects that they could be owed around £12,000 each. Unsurprisingly, Uber has tried to appeal the ruling every step of the way but UK courts have dismissed them in turn.
Considering the business has made billions of dollars in losses over the past few years, another financial burden isn’t likely to be welcomed at Uber. They maintain that they have made appropriate changes to contracts to better support their workers.
The Regional Manager for Northern Europe, Jamie Heywood stated:
“We respect the Court's decision which focussed on a small number of drivers who used the Uber app in 2016.
Since then we have made some significant changes to our business, guided by drivers every step of the way. These include giving even more control over how they earn and providing new protections like free insurance in case of sickness or injury.”
The former drivers who brought the case to the courts, James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam, were ‘relieved’ to see it brought to a close. Talking about the case, they stated:
“It took us six years to establish what we should have got in 2015. Someone somewhere, in the government or the regulator, massively let down these workers, many of whom are in a precarious position.
This [ruling] is a win-win-win for drivers, passengers and cities. It means Uber now has the correct economic incentives not to oversupply the market with too many vehicles and too many drivers,"
This ruling will no doubt send shockwaves throughout the wider gig-economy, so watch this space. To make sure you’re up to date with all the news from the taxi industry, make sure you sign up for our mailing list!
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