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Uber Loses Right To Classify UK Drivers as Self-Employed (theguardian.com)
Uber drivers are not self-employed and should be paid the "national living wage," a UK employment court has ruled in a landmark case which could affect tens of thousands of workers in the gig economy. From a report on the Guardian: The ride-hailing app could now be open to claims from all of its 40,000 drivers in the UK, who are currently not entitled to holiday pay, pensions or other workers' rights. Uber immediately said it would appeal against the ruling. Employment experts said other firms with large self-employed workforces could now face scrutiny of their working practices and the UK's biggest union, Unite, announced it was setting up a new unit to pursue cases of bogus self-employment. The Uber ruling could force a rethink of the gig economy business model, where companies use apps and the internet to match customers with workers. The firms do not employ the workers, but take commission from their earnings, and many have become huge global enterprises.
They dictate all of your terms
Maybe I'm OK with Uber's terms? Why are all of these other people going to work for them and them bitching? Why aren't they quitting and finding other work?
If enough people quit Uber or just were not available, Uber would have to improve it's contract terms. The market at work. What all of these people are complaining about is that others are willing to accept terms that they are not satisfied with. They got under bid.
Have gnu, will travel.
The foundation of our economy is that large numbers of people have enough disposable income to buy lots of things including taxi rides. If everyone is earning fuck all in an insecure job there won't be many Uber drivers (because they won't be able to buy a car) or Uber customers. Our corporate overlords seem desperate to get rid of the very thing that makes them wealthy - their customers. They don't seem to realise that all that dreadful socialism that we've had since WW2 has created millions of new customers for thousands of industries old and new. Getting rid of them just to get the stock price up a bit isn't going to end well.