For four years, The employment status of Uber drivers in the UK was like a colorful beach ball: unsubstantial, beaten from yard to yard, which looks different depending on where you are. On Friday, the country’s highest court ruled: a group of 25 Uber drivers who filed a lawsuit against the company should never have been treated as independent contractors, the judges concluded. Instead, workers are entitled to a national minimum wage, paid leave, rest breaks and protection against discrimination.
For now, the decision applies only to the 25 drivers. But it’s the latest sign of governments around the world pressuring Uber’s business model and those of its concert economy brethren – including DoorDash, Lyft, Amazon, Instacart and, in the UK, food delivery company Deliveroo. Parliamentarians, lawyers, trade unions and organizers want companies to treat their workers better, even if the companies remain unprofitable.
“In the last 12 months, the courts have been moving to protect workers’ rights in the concert economy,” said Ruwan Subasinghe, legal director of the International Federation of Transport Workers, which represents nearly 20 million workers in 150 countries. In March last year, a French court ruled that an Uber driver did not qualify as an independent contractor, opening the transport and delivery company to tax liability. A similar decision followed last fall in Italy. The Belgian labor authority filed a lawsuit last month challenging the food status of food delivery workers. Earlier this week, judges in the Netherlands ruled that bicycle couriers for Deliveroo do not qualify as self-employed and that Deliveroo must pay an hourly wage rather than delivery.
Outside the courtrooms, the Spanish government is to issue new strict rules that will change the employment status of food delivery workers in the country, immediately after this month. The European Union will also start discussing legislation regulating platform-based work this month with a view to issuing new labor rules by the end of the year. The EU could, for example, weaken antitrust laws to allow gig workers to bargain collectively, a kind of coordination that today could be considered an illegal cartel.
Uber has been arguing for years that it is simply a technology platform, connecting business owners – people who own cars and want to make money – with customers who want walks and snacks. But Friday’s unanimous ruling by the UK Supreme Court ruled that, unlike other independent contractors, Uber drivers have no control over key parts of their work. The court ruled that drivers do not set their own contractual terms, that they are penalized for refusing too many travel applications, that they are assessed – using riders’ qualifications – as employees. Sure, the court said, Uber drivers theoretically end up choosing what kind of car to use – but Uber first veterinarians the make and model.
In response to the decision, Jamie Heywood, Uber’s regional general manager for Northern and Eastern Europe, stressed that the ruling applies “only to a small number of drivers who used the Uber app in 2016” and that the company made changes to the app for driver since then. “We are committed to doing more and now we will consult with every active driver in the UK to understand the changes they want to see,” he said. Uber did not immediately announce any changes to its service, but in the past has said it will raise prices if it is forced to treat more drivers as employees.
Similar arguments are played out in the US. A 2019 California law restricted the use of employers by independent contractors. Soon after, a federal court of appeal ruled that Uber drivers should be treated as employees, entitled to a minimum wage, workers’ compensation and other benefits. Eventually, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and others avoided both lawmakers and the courts, spending more than $ 200 million on a voting measure that allows them to continue to treat workers as contractors, with some added benefits. Californians approved Proposition 22 in November.