Nottingham Uber drivers plot 24-hour strike as they protest exploitative payhttps://www.nottinghampost.com/news/not ... 4-10141603
Nottingham Uber drivers say they are being forced to accept increasingly lower cuts of taxi fares as dozens turned out for a protest. Disgruntled cabbies gathered outside the City Ground on Tuesday (April 29) afternoon, where some of their colleagues were meeting members of Uber management.
The drivers said their shares of taxi fares had been tumbling over the last year and claimed Uber, a company worth around £120 billion, regularly takes as much as 40 to 50 per cent in commission. The company denied this, however, saying this amounts to weekly take rates of around 25-30 per cent.
"They know the drivers will run for the peanuts while they make billions," said Abid Rashid, who has worked as a driver for Uber since 2017. "They know the drivers are getting frustrated. It's been nearly a year that we've been suffering low rates. It's a mental stress for the drivers.
"They need time for work, time for maintenance and for family. Some drivers told me they couldn't come here because they said they have to pay the bills. They're struggling at the minute."
Mr Rashid said drivers are planning to coordinate a strike on Thursday, May 1, which he hopes most Nottingham Uber employees will join. "We're going to turn off the app for 24 hours. We're hoping at least 50 per cent of drivers join," he said.
"The demands are not just for Nottingham, they are for Birmingham, London, Manchester, every major city. For the USA and South Africa.
"We need to educate the passengers. So many times they think we're getting all the money."
Mehtab Aslam, who began driving for Uber eight years ago, said drivers were effectively forced to take worsening rates. He said he was recently offered £15 to drive someone from the NG8 area to East Midlands Airport, a trip he says would have made him at least £25 in previous years.
"You don't get a job back from the airport. Basically we're trapped," he said. "We have no choice. We have to accept, otherwise we are going without food."
Ifthar Mohammed, who had five-and-a-half years experience as a driver, said: "Every year it's going down. You spend more time on the road and you worry about everything you do. How you talk, what you say, if your car's clean. A lot of drivers don't speak great English. They can't get a job elsewhere."
As well as demanding fairer pay, drivers called for improved holiday and sick pay, a halt to the "excessive onboarding" of new drivers and the scrapping of the "unsafe" Trip Radar booking system.
An Uber spokesperson said: "We regularly engage with drivers, especially through our industry-leading agreement with GMB Union, who are not taking part in this action. Uber is currently meeting with hundreds of drivers across the country to hear directly from them about how we can improve their experience on the platform."
The company added that it has designated UK drivers as "workers", meaning all drivers receive at least the National Living Wage, holiday pay based on 12.07 per cent of their earnings paid out weekly in cash and access to a pension plan with contributions from Uber - the first of its kind in the ride hailing private hire vehicle industry.
Drivers are also provided with free sickness and injury cover, childcare vouchers, parental payments and access to free Open University courses for them and their families. Uber also explained that its drivers are not allowed to drive on the app for longer than 10 hours at a time.
Login
Register
FAQ
