Uber Appeals Against Ruling that Its UK Drivers Are Workers (theguardian.com)

Uber has launched an appeal against a landmark employment tribunal ruling that its minicab drivers should be classed as workers with access to the minimum wage, sick pay and paid holidays. From a report on The Guardian: The taxi-app company filed papers with the appeal tribunal on Tuesday in an attempt to overturn the October judgment that, if it stands, could affect tens of thousands of workers in the gig economy. The move came as several dozen Uber drivers picketed City Hall on Wednesday holding placards demanding Transport for London, which licences Uber as a private hire operator in the capital, "end sweated labour now." It also mounted a protest at the City of London offices of Salesforce, a US computing company that is a major Uber client. Two Uber drivers, James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam, took Uber to court on behalf of a group 19 others who argued that they were employed by the San Francisco-based company, rather than working for themselves. Uber's business model has been based on treating drivers who log on to its app as self-employed contractors and taking a cut of their fares, which Uber dictates.

Comments

Re:Mixed Feelings

[Maxo-Texas]

Part of the reason it wasn't obscenely expensive was that it was relying on artificially low labor cost.

It's like buying shoes or clothing made by 11 year old sweat shop labor locked into buildings like slaves.

Sure... the shoes or clothing are cheaper.

And sorry, but being "on the clock" includes time waiting available to be scheduled for a fare and time driving to the customer to pick them up. I'm not sure how you could see otherwise really.

Taxi monopolies are egregious and do need to be addressed. But in many locations, after safety, insurance, and other regulations individual taxi drivers don't make a ton of money.