Uber ‘will face court challenge’ to force it to pay drivers for logging onto the app

Credit: JOSH EDELSON/AFP

Uber is set to face a court challenge over new worker rights it has introduced from today for its 70,000 UK drivers, which critics say "short-change" those logging into the app. 

From today, the taxi app said it would start treating all its UK drivers as workers, giving them benefits such as holiday pay and pensions.

The move came just weeks after a ruling by the UK’s top court over drivers’ status, which found that they should not be treated as third-party contractors.

As part of that ruling, the Supreme Court said drivers should be paid minimum wage from when they logged onto the app, and not from when they were driving passengers as Uber had argued.

Some 10pc of UK workers undertake weekly work in the gig economy

However, under the changes which came into force today, Uber has said drivers would receive the minimum wage from when they accepted trip requests, understood to be a decision to prevent some drivers from logging onto multiple apps at the same time. 

James Farrar, one of the former Uber drivers who had been behind the legal battle with the US app, said he was "certain" that the move would be challenged again in court. 

"Uber is, by its methodology, shortchanging drivers still by about 40-50pc of their working time."

He said as part of the Supreme Court ruling process, once the drivers in the case had established they were entitled to these rights, they have had to go back to the law-level tribunal to decide on the settlements.

"Uber is a bit early in pre-empting that. The next step is for us to go back to court, and Uber, by making this offer, isn’t meeting legal minimums. It’s not enough for us to say, we need to pack up and go home, we’ve achieved everything. We haven’t. We’re not nearly there yet."

London has the highest proportion of its workforce in the gig economy

The criticism was echoed by Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, who accused Uber of attempting to "cherry pick" from a Supreme Court ruling in introducing the new worker rights.

Ms O’Grady told BBC Radio 4’s Today Show that this decision was "the 21st century equivalent of workers being held at the factory gate bidding for work".

"It’s not acceptable in a modern economy … Gig workers deserve to be treated with dignity and get the same basic rights as everyone else."

Mr Farrar and Yaseen Aslam, another of the two former drivers behind the legal case, released a statement saying: "While Uber undoubtedly has made progress here, we cannot accept anything less than full compliance with legal minimums. We would also expect to see Uber make progress towards trade union recognition, a fair dismissals appeals process and a data access agreement."

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