Brazil Judge Rules Uber Drivers Are Employees, Deserve Benefits (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader shares a Reuters report: A Brazilian judge ruled that a driver using the Uber ride-hailing app is an employee of the San Francisco-based company and is entitled to workers' benefits, adding to the global debate over labor rights for drivers on the platform. Uber said on Tuesday it would appeal the decision by Judge Marcio Toledo Goncalves, who issued the ruling late Monday in a labor court in Minas Gerais state. Goncalves ordered Uber to pay one driver around 30,000 reais ($10,000) in compensation for overtime, night shifts, holidays and expenses such as gasoline, water and candy for passengers. The consequences for Uber, if the ruling is upheld, could be far greater if more drivers follow suit and if state and federal regulators and tax agencies start treating it, as the judge suggested, as a transportation company rather than a tech firm.

Comments

More likely they will pull out

[Anonymous Coward]

More likely they will pull out of any markets that dictate this. They can't remain profitable doing that.

Re:More likely they will pull out

[golodh]

Good. This commonsense view should be applied to all markets Uber is in. If they can't compete on a level playing field they should indeed pull out and stop their unfair competition.

Re:More likely they will pull out

[Hadlock]

I don't think it really matters, it costs almost nothing to defend these cases for Uber. They're just trying to defer spinning up a big HR division between now and in five years when Uber replaces most of their human drivers with driverless cars. People keep treating Uber as if they're going to be this massive, massive employer -- they won't. Ideally in 10 years most everything will live in the cloud run by a team of 300 engineers, with local service centers to swap out batteries and electric drive units for the cars. Human drivers will only work in areas that don't have enough ride share demand to deserve a dedicated service center.
 
Worrying about driver's benefits is a very short sighted goal and really is a waste of everyone's time.

Re:More likely they will pull out

[angel'o'sphere]

Who cares?
Even in ten years I will still boycott uber.

Labor Laws

[zifn4b]

I'm pretty sure if you're employing people in different countries you have to abide by their labor laws. You can't just push American labor laws on other countries. Cost of doing business there uber. Want to be a global multi-national company? You have to pay to play.

Or maybe we should just all agree on some global labor standards but I bet you America wouldn't like that one bit.

Re:Never Fails

[Nidi62]

Someone comes up with an idea that's pretty good, is designed for people to work part time to pick up some cash, minimal regulations, etc. and it's a pretty good thing for everyone all around.

Except there are regulations around offering yourself for hire for personal transportation. Just because you own a boat doesn't mean you can take up commercial fishing part-time to make some extra cash either without following proper regulations and licensing. If you want a part-time job to make some extra cash wait some tables, tend bar, be a bag boy at a grocery store, or work swing shift in a bakery. Just wanting to make a little extra money doesn't justify ignoring local, state, or federal laws and regulations.

Re:I hate worker exploitation

[Jaime2]

But a client specifying tools seems like a strange thing to determine contractor vs something else on.

A contractor produces results for a fee. If the purchaser of the service wishes to retain control over anything other than the results, then they need an employee, not a contractor.