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.

Comments

Wow

[jwymanm]

I love how people try to campaign against their own jobs. What's better.. employee rights without employment or working on your own hours and still making money? If it upsets you then go find somewhere else to work and let people who want to contract continue contracting.

UK is the land of law

[Trachman]

There will be appeal process to this. During appeal process finally THE logic, the legal logic, will be used and the ruling of the lower court will be thrown away. It is that simple. Luckily there is a reasonable and predictable legal process. There are so many arguments and practical hacks against the ruling that it is not even practicable to even list those arguments, and we will not even attempt to do so.

However here is one:
Under the current interpretation, all you need to do is to register yourself, and the money starts flowing. Reality is that, the law would force employment contract between Uber and the driver, while, clearly, there is no agreement between the the Uber and the driver, and Uber is under no commitment to bring business to the driver when there is none.

So, what you need to do is to open an Uber account, go to the furthest part of the island, where there is a zero demand for UBER service, preferably during the night and check-in. Leave the car overnight and let the idle car make money, while doing nothing.

Opportunities are limitless.

All it will do is that Uber will accelerate driver-less car fleet and those who were petitioning for minimum hourly rate, on behalf of all drivers, will accelerate mass joblessness, as most of the Uber drivers will be obsolete.

That is a matter of a decade.