Uber drivers have the same employment rights as other full-time employees in Britain, a court has ruled in a landmark decision which looks likely to send shockwaves through the nation’s so-called “gig economy.”
The ruling 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 casualised labour, and that “similar contracts masquerading as bogus self employment will all be reviewed.”
The union’s legal director Maria Ludkin said the case represented “a monumental victory” and claimed it would “have a hugely positive impact” for Uber’s drivers, of whom there are around 40,000 in Britain.
Uber drivers and other directed workers do have legal rights at work. The question for them now is how those rights are enforced in practice. The clear answer is that the workforce must combine into the GMB union to force the company to recognise these rights and to negotiate fair terms and conditions for the drivers.
For its part, Uber is sticking to its self-employment argument, and it UK general manager Jo Bertram has vowed to appeal the court’s decision. She said:
Tens of thousands of people in London drive with Uber precisely because they want to be self-employed and their own boss. The overwhelming majority of drivers who use the Uber app want to keep the freedom and flexibility of being able to drive when and where they want. While the decision of this preliminary hearing only affects two people we will be appealing it.
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