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Bruce Gardiner discusses Uber’s employment appeal loss in Accountancy Age

Posted: 13/11/2017

Uber has lost an appeal against an Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruling that the ride-hailing app should class its drivers as “workers” rather than “self-employed”.

The case was brought by Uber drivers James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam last year. They stated that Uber should afford its drivers with rights typically given to employees, such as minimum wage, paid leave and sick pay.

Bruce Gardiner, employment and personal injury disputes barrister at 2 Temple Gardens commented:

“Companies in the gig economy have taken yet another severe blow. Uber’s attempts to argue it is just a glorified minicab firm, helping drivers run their own transport businesses as their agent, has been quashed in an Appeal Tribunal decision.

“The ruling considered that the Tribunal was entitled to find that Uber’s paperwork contained inventive fictions, not reflecting the legal reality. It was reiterated that Uber’s business functions through the drivers working for Uber, rather than the other way around.

“The result is that Uber drivers are entitled to be paid at least the minimum wage as well as receive holiday and sickness pay. There is now a consistent line of recent decisions finding that gig economy workers enjoy these minimum employment rights.”

Read the full article in Accountancy Age here.

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