Uber Contract 'Gibberish', Says MP Investigating Gig Economy (theguardian.com)

A committee of MPs has lambasted Uber's contracts with drivers as "gibberish" and "almost unintelligible" as the company attempts to ensure its drivers remain self-employed. From a report: Frank Field, chair of the work and pensions select committee that is carrying out an investigation into the so-called gig economy, said: "Quite frankly the Uber contract is gibberish. They are well aware that many, if not most, of their drivers speak English as a second language -- they recently lost a court case trying to escape Transport for London's new English testing rules for private hire drivers -- yet their contract is almost unintelligible." [...] Publishing full details of Uber's contract terms, along with those for the takeaway courier firm Deliveroo and Amazon, Field said all three used some kind of "egregious clause" which attempted to prevent people challenging their "self-employed" designation, although neither Uber's nor Amazon's contract went as far as Deliveroo's, in the committee's view.

Comments

When will they learn?

[viperidaenz]

Law overrides contracts, less the law specifically states it can be contracted out of.

Perhaps there should be penalties for putting in clauses that contradict law. The companies put them in to scare people in to not exercising their legal rights, knowing they're not enforceable.

I wonder if it would be covered under existing "obtaining by deception" or "loss by deception" laws...