Uber says will treat drivers as workers in UK
By IANS |
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Wed, Mar 17 2021 10:21 IST |
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London, March 17 : Ride-hailing platform Uber will treat drivers in the UK as workers like its global workforce, that will give them benefits like minimum guaranteed pay, holiday pay, pension plans and others.
The move came after The UK Supreme Court ruled last month that Uber drivers should be treated as workers and not self-employed.
The company said on Tuesday that all drivers in the UK will be paid holiday time based on 12.07 per cent of their earnings, which will be paid out every two weeks, TechCrunch reported.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Uber’s proposal to expand benefits to British drivers following a court defeat last month has not put an end to the fight for better gig-worker pay in the UK and around the world, an issue that has become a flashpoint for the labor movement.
On Tuesday, Uber Technologies Inc said it would offer guaranteed entitlements to its more than 70,000 UK drivers, including holiday pay, a pension plan and limited minimum wage.
Uber has said it wants to expand limited benefits similar to those offered to drivers in the UK across all of Europe and the United States.
Uber Reclassifies 70,000 UK Drivers as Workers – Providing Minimum Wage, Benefits
Uber Technologies Inc. will reclassify all 70,000 of its UK drivers as workers, entitling them to the minimum wage, vacation pay and other benefits after a landmark ruling from the Supreme Court last month.
The ride-hailing app’s drivers will receive at least the national living wage of 8.72 pounds ($12.11) per hour starting Wednesday. This will be the minimum drivers can earn, in what Uber described as an “earnings floor, not an earnings ceiling.”
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The UK will be the first country in the world where Uber will have this business model. The firm didn’t specify how much the reclassification will cost, but said it doesn’t expect to change its earnings forecast for the quarter or the year. Uber shares declined less than 1% in after-hours trading on Tuesday.
Uber’s new minimum wage policy in the UK doesn’t meet the law, say case claimants
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Yaseen Aslam and James Farrar, the two lead claimants in the successful tribunal that fought Uber for employee rights in the UK, say the company is continuing to flout the law. After it lost a final appeal with the UK’s Supreme Court in February, Uber announced yesterday it would give its 70,000 drivers minimum wage, holiday pay, and pensions. But Aslam and Farrar say the details of Uber’s new policy mean it’s still short-changing workers.
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After years of aggressively fighting any efforts to force it to recognize its drivers as employees, on Tuesday Uber performed a U-turn on the streets of Britain and recognized all of its drivers as working for the company rather than serving as freelancers.
The change is the result of a court ruling last month that entitled workers to seek more pay and benefits but resisted classifying them as employees. That decision by the UK’s Supreme Court, making it definitive, was unanimous, and actively rejected Uber’s argument that it was just a technology platform that connected suppliers with customers. The court was having none of that, and decided that since Uber set the prices, connected drivers and passengers, and decided which route the drivers should follow, it was more employer than platform.