# UK Uber Drivers are Now Employees



## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

https://tinyurl.com/1hp9nyp1[HEADING=2]Uber slips as U.K. drivers wake up as employees, not contractors[/HEADING]
Feb. 19, 2021 6:38 AM ETUber Technologies, Inc. (UBER)By: Yoel Minkoff, SA News Editor5 Comments

Uber (NYSE:UBER) shares are off 3.5% in premarket trading after losing a key legal fight in the U.K. The country's Supreme Court upheld a ruling that its drivers should be classified as workers, rather than independent contractors, entitling them to minimum wage, holiday and sick pay, and rest breaks. Britain is the Uber's biggest European market, with about 40,000 drivers.
_Bigger picture:_ The verdict concludes an almost five-year legal battle between the ride-hailing giant and a band of former drivers, led by Yaseen Aslam and James Farrar. In 2016, an employment tribunal ruled in favor of the group, and since then, two other court decisions have gone against Uber. The case will now be sent back to the employment tribunal, which could order Uber to pay compensation to about 20 original claimants. Thousands of other drivers have also taken legal action and the decision could be rapidly applied to them.
Uber faced a similar situation in California this past year. Regulators there attempted to reclassify drivers of Uber and other ride-hailing services like Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) as employees to grant them more protections. Voters ended up supporting a ballot measure called Proposition 22, which continued the status quo, after the companies say they would guarantee new protections to workers. Those included giving drivers 30 cents a mile driven to account for gas and other vehicle costs, healthcare subsidies for drivers who work 15 hours or more a week and occupational accident insurance coverage while on the job.
*Outlook:* While the U.K. ruling will only apply to Uber, British businesses may have to review some of their terms as it could give other contractors the impetus to pursue similar claims. "It's one of the biggest employment law decisions of my career," said Joe Aiston, lawyer at Taylor Wessing. "It's going to have a massive knock-on affect both to the gig economy and any business that engages independent contractors."


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## dnlbaboof (Nov 13, 2015)

Good. Being an employee is the right move. Now the number 1 demand of drivers is workman's comp and now it is acquired. Most every driver would trade the right to reject rides, not work a shift 30 miles from your house with no destination filter, apx. 75% downsizing, inability to deduct miles, no higher rate per mile for workman's comp. Its a worthy tradeoff, and no Prop 22's injury protection is not as good as workman's comp because I said so. It's simple Workman's comp is the most demanded and essential human right, and Uber providing commercial car insurance is not as important, I would trade all this for workman's comp.

Give me a shift 40 miles from my house where I must accept every ride with no destination filter on a shift for 10 people 1000 people are fighting over. Take away the commercial car Insurance, everything, All that is needed is workmans comp. With the democratic party in total control the dream of every driver will come true, workmans comp, In the unlikely chance you wont be downsized you'll get a shift 50 miles from your house where you must accept every ride and you will get the ultimate prize in exchange=workmans comp.


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

Michael - Cleveland said:


> https://tinyurl.com/1hp9nyp1[HEADING=2]Uber slips as U.K. drivers wake up as employees, not contractors[/HEADING]
> Feb. 19, 2021 6:38 AM ETUber Technologies, Inc. (UBER)By: Yoel Minkoff, SA News Editor5 Comments
> 
> Uber (NYSE:UBER) shares are off 3.5% in premarket trading after losing a key legal fight in the U.K. The country's Supreme Court upheld a ruling that its drivers should be classified as workers, rather than independent contractors, entitling them to minimum wage, holiday and sick pay, and rest breaks. Britain is the Uber's biggest European market, with about 40,000 drivers.
> ...


Excellent news. It just goes to show that in some countries large corporations can't purchase the ability to undo and rewrite labour law.


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## dnlbaboof (Nov 13, 2015)

Remember they tried the forced employee thing in Switzerland and it was a disaster, massive downsizing and drivers hating every minute of it

Independent couriers' reaction to employee reclassification: learnings from Geneva | by Uber Under the Hood | Uber Under the Hood | Medium


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

dnlbaboof said:


> Remember they tried the forced employee thing in Switzerland and it was a disaster, massive downsizing and drivers hating every minute of it
> 
> Independent couriers' reaction to employee reclassification: learnings from Geneva | by Uber Under the Hood | Uber Under the Hood | Medium


All credibility for the article went straight out the window when I read in the header: _By Alison Stein, Economist at Uber _

Remember, this is the company that tried to claim that "lower rates = higher earnings!". Given this company's track record with propaganda and false claims, any new claims from them are deemed to be gibberish until proven otherwise.


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## dnlbaboof (Nov 13, 2015)

The Gift of Fish said:


> All credibility for the article went straight out the window when I read in the header: _By Alison Stein, Economist at Uber _
> 
> Remember, this is the company that tried to claim that "lower rates = higher earnings!". Given this company's track record with propaganda and false claims, any new claims from them are deemed to be gibberish until proven otherwise.


This is a logical fallacy. Attacking the messenger instead of disputing her evidence. So if she came out and said murder is evil you would oppose her view because she is the economist at Uber?


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## The Gift of Fish (Mar 17, 2017)

dnlbaboof said:


> This is a logical fallacy. Attacking the messenger instead of disputing her evidence. So if she came out and said murder is evil you would oppose her view because she is the economist at Uber?


Indeed, it is a fallacy; the converse of appeal to authority - in this case an appeal to subterfuge perhaps.

However, admission of fallacy or not, it still means that I'm not going to waste my time reading the article.

It's like the boy who cried wolf. The final time he cried wolf, there really was truth in what he said. Unfortunately, though, one does not get to tell lies time after time and then expect to be believed or even listened to. That's just not how things work.


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## Cdub2k (Nov 22, 2017)

unsupervised workers?


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## Gtown Driver (Aug 26, 2018)

This explains that you should only work Uber long enough to realize that the best way to work for yourself is to have your own company/LLC. Uber is just the Great Value version of working for yourself.


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## keithfd (Oct 12, 2020)

So I dont get it they get paid minimum wage so basically hour basis is there no commission. Drive 6 trips in an hour for minimum wage where the gas km you driven may cost more. 100km trip in an hour for minimum wage makes no sense. Or is minimum wage just a minimum you'll get an hour.


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## dnlbaboof (Nov 13, 2015)

This is a good thing. If we are forced to become employees you can open Doordash, uber and lyft reject every ride and collect $39 an hour for doing nothing, because according to AB5 supporters you don't lose any flexibility being an employee. They have reassured of this several times.


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## SHalester (Aug 25, 2019)

dnlbaboof said:


> If we are forced to become employees you can open Doordash, uber and lyft reject every ride


you funny. as an employee there would no longer be 'pings' or 'request' they would be dispatching orders. Go and do, or be fired. Simple.


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## dnlbaboof (Nov 13, 2015)

SHalester said:


> you funny. as an employee there would no longer be 'pings' or 'request' they would be dispatching orders. Go and do, or be fired. Simple.


No the god darned Attorney general of California and the state senator who wrote ab5 said we can have full flexibility with ab5. So I'm ready. Lyft, doordash, postmates, uber and grub hub open at the same times, reject every ride collect min wage x5. Thats $65 an hour, thats doctor money......for nothing. I've prepared. I've run up my credit card, spent my children's college money knowing full well I'm getting $65 an hour to watch TV.


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## SHalester (Aug 25, 2019)

dnlbaboof said:


> we can have full flexibility with ab5


no, they did not say that. They ONLY said the law (AB5) didn't say that. They were playing quite dumb.

If we were made employees in calif you would have zero flexibility; the same as every other employee. You would be supervised. You would be assigned shifts. Pings would go bye bye and be instead dispatch orders. You whine and don't do an order, you would be fired for cause. Oh, and note in calif you can be fired for any legal reason; no protection.

You would also be assigned a work area; the chance you get to chose would go bye bye as well.

Right about now you are happy Prop 22 saved you, huh?


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## Trafficat (Dec 19, 2016)

dnlbaboof said:


> No the god darned Attorney general of California and the state senator who wrote ab5 said we can have full flexibility with ab5.


The law doesn't force the company to eliminate flexibility. But offering flexibility makes no sense for an employer that has to pay hourly wages. They aren't going to pay you to sit around rejecting requests or sitting around with the app on far from where drivers are needed. And they're going to want drivers to cover every shift, not every driver on Monday from 9 to 5 and all the drivers trying to be off on Saturday. So people are going to get shifts they don't want, and not be allowed to work shifts they do.


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## UberChiefPIT (Apr 13, 2020)

Michael - Cleveland said:


> https://tinyurl.com/1hp9nyp1[HEADING=2]Uber slips as U.K. drivers wake up as employees, not contractors[/HEADING]
> Feb. 19, 2021 6:38 AM ETUber Technologies, Inc. (UBER)By: Yoel Minkoff, SA News Editor5 Comments
> 
> Uber (NYSE:UBER) shares are off 3.5% in premarket trading after losing a key legal fight in the U.K. The country's Supreme Court upheld a ruling that its drivers should be classified as workers, rather than independent contractors, entitling them to minimum wage, holiday and sick pay, and rest breaks. Britain is the Uber's biggest European market, with about 40,000 drivers.
> ...


UK Uber drivers are now deactivated and unemployed.

Headline coming soon!


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## SHalester (Aug 25, 2019)

Trafficat said:


> The law doesn't force the company to eliminate flexibility


no, the law says we'd be employees. And the employer sets ALL THE RULES FOR THEIR WORKFORCE. Period. And no other law would have changed that.

No pings
No flex schedule
Picking shifts (we saw that from Uber directly in blurbs)
Dispatch orders
Areas to work wouldn't be 'optional'.
Directly supervised and managed (ride along performance reviews)
Tad bit of good news you would be reimbursed for all mileages & gas the moment you were on the clock

oh, and the last bit you would first need to be hired. For those who thought all active drivers would be auto converted, well they had it way wrong.

Prop 22 saved the day. Period.


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## Trafficat (Dec 19, 2016)

SHalester said:


> oh, and the last bit you would first need to be hired. For those who thought all active drivers would be auto converted, well they had it way wrong.
> 
> Prop 22 saved the day. Period.


The saddest bit is that those who are most reliant on Uber because they could not cut it at a regular job or pass an interview are precisely the drivers who will not pass the interview to become a driver.


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## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

Always nice to see how many members we have with fortune telling skills and access to a crystal ball.


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## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

[HEADING=2]Uber reclassifies more than 70,000 UK drivers as workers[/HEADING]
Mar. 16, 2021 5:12 PM ETUber Technologies, Inc. (UBER)By: Brandy Betz, SA News Editor7 Comments

Uber (NYSE:UBER) will reclassify more than 70,000 drivers in the UK as company workers who deserve a minimum wage, vacation pay, and pension plan access.
The move, Uber's first time changing the classification of drivers, follows last month's British Supreme Court decision that said drivers should receive more protections.
Uber is fighting driver classification battles around the world, but the British outcome doesn't imply that other switches will follow. *British labor laws have a middle option between freelancers or contractors and full-time employees*, which is lacking in other regions.


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## newbettadewbetta (Mar 17, 2021)

ahh backpay, this why uber lyft is deactivating all the experienced drivers with years on the platform for no reasons lol


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