A UK court this week ruled that Uber is in fact an employer - a decision which Uber is determined to appeal against, and clearly isn't happy with, given the ramifications of such a decision. At the minute, Uber is not globally recognised as having employees, but rather as having self-employed contractors - the difference of course being Uber's responsibilities and the workers' rights under Employment Law (as noted here in the FT).
The important part of this decision is that UK Employment Law allows a middle ground between the disputed terms, having ruled that the Uber drivers are 'workers' rather than employees or contractors. This seems like a fairly good model, straddling the line between the drivers' protections and freedoms, giving them some benefits but not limiting the flexibility which attracted so many to the role. The big question is will the ruling stand, and if so, will countries around the world follow the UK example? And if the ruling does stand, will this negatively impact on users?
No comments:
Post a Comment