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Uber Drivers Are Company Employees Not Self-Employed Contractors, Rules British Court (arstechnica.com)
A British court has ruled that Uber drivers have the same employment rights as other full-time employees in the country, which makes them entitled to a wide array of benefits. Ars Technica reports: The ruling (PDF) means that drivers are now entitled to earn the national minimum wage, holiday pay, sick pay, and other benefits, after the San Francisco-based taxi firm lost a case brought against them by two drivers backed by the GMB union. Uber had argued that it was a tech firm rather than a transport one, and that as its drivers were self-employed contractors it was not obliged to provide the kinds of statutory employment rights full-time workers would expect. According to the GMB, the Central London Employment Tribunal's decision will have ramifications in other industries which rely on casualized labor, and that "similar contracts masquerading as bogus self employment will all be reviewed." In the court's ruling, however, the judges insisted that "the notion that Uber in London is a mosaic of 30,000 small businesses linked by a common 'platform' is to our minds faintly ridiculous. Drivers do not and cannot negotiate with passengers... They are offered and accept trips strictly on Uber's terms." The tribunal panel reserved hefty criticism for the firm, claiming that it had used "fictions," "twisted language," and "brand new terminology" to hoodwink drivers and passengers alike. The GMB meanwhile denied that the majority of Uber drivers enjoyed the "flexibility" of their current contracts.
Dishonest employers fooling employees into thinking they're contractors has actually long been a mainstay of the technical industry. Seriously. If you think you're a contractor and are rejecting my assertion here but you still have to report to an office at a specific time determined by your employer, you're a sucker.
How the hell is working FOR Uber entrepreneurship. Can you Grow your Business?
Can you Also deal with competing Companies?
Deal Direct with Customers? Other them other services?
No You work for Uber.
What they're actually saying is that UK citizens are not free to enter into individual contracts for labor or service, they may only be employees of a business/corporation. Apparently the leaders in the UK must not believe UK citizens are intelligent enough to avoid signing themselves into slavery or something.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
It's entrepreneurship because you get to decide when, where, and how much you work.
That is the definition of flexible work hours. The definition of entrepreneur is someone who establishes a business.
I chose not to be a billionaire because I didn't want to put in the kind of effort, dedication, and in these times, stoop as low as one needs to acquire such a fortune.
Bwhahahaha. That's incredibly cute.
"Old man yells at systemd"
Actaully, Uber drivers can't negotiate the price with passengers because the passengers aren't actually the driver's clients, Uber is, and the passengers are Uber's customers, not the drivers, so driver has absolutely no authority to negotiate a different rate of pay with them. The driver can either accept the rate that Uber said they will pay... or not. Accepting what a client said they would pay does not make the contractor who agreed to work for that amount an employee.
There may be other reasons to consider Uber drivers employee's, but how the drivers are paid is definitely not one of them. If that, as you say, is really the tipping point, then Uber drivers would definitely be independent contractors.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
As a contractor I quote to the client the price that I charge (keeping in mind market rates for CCIEs) and it is the customer that determines whether to accept or to counter-offer. The ability to counter-offer is important, as it indicates the negotiation part of the contract is indeed between the two parties.
In Uber's case, the real contract is between the customer and Uber, and the limited options of the Uber driver indicate that the relationship between Uber and the driver more or less works on Uber's terms. This is indicative of a employee-employer relationship.
In the UK, companies are required to provide certain things to employees, part time or not. The issue here is the organisation is supposed to be employing these people as employees and not "self employed contractors", likely brought about with the similarity to how these are like zero-hour contracts.
Just like someone employed under a zero-hour contract, however that doesn't mean the company is not responsible for them as an employee still.
And they can take the organisation to court if they don't believe it's following proper employment practices.
Small companies don't really make their employees declare that they're self employed contractors.
"Kickbacks" are illegal for politicans in the UK thanks to the Bribery act. If you have evidence of this, I would suggest you publish it so the British government and public can address it.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
And nothing of value was lost...
In fact something of value would be gained, the principle that you can't circumvent laws on hours, holiday pay, maternity pay, redundancy pay simply by saying that someone is a self-employed contractor. It doesn't matter whether Uber stay or go