Taxi Driver Online

Uber drivers begin landmark legal action over dynamic pay and algorithmic management

https://www.ier.org.uk/news/uber-driver ... anagement/



Worker Info Exchange International has filed a collective action at the Amsterdam District Court on behalf of drivers in the UK, Netherland, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland and Romania. The action is brought in the Netherlands, where Uber B.V., the joint controller responsible for Uber driver personal data across the EEA and UK, is established.

Worker Info Exchange International alleges that Uber’s dynamic pay and work allocation systems qualify as automated decisions that significantly affect drivers, in breach of the protections provided by Article 22 GDPR. The claim also challenges Uber’s processing of drivers’ personal data to develop and operate these AI and Machine Learning Systems. Further, the claim alleges that Uber unlawfully transferred driver personal data outside of the EU without the appropriate required safeguards in place to protect their rights.

Worker Info Exchange International is seeking compensation for harms caused to affected drivers by Uber’s unlawful conduct and injunctive relief to prevent the harms from continuing.

The harms suffered by affected Uber drivers

Since 2020, Uber gradually moved away from a pay model based on fixed rates for the time and distance of a trip. Instead, it introduced highly variable pay, dynamically determined in real time according to parameters that are neither disclosed to nor understood by drivers. Work allocation has similarly evolved from relatively simple matching based predominantly on location and estimated arrival time towards increasingly complex and opaque algorithmic allocation.

Worker Info Exchange International commissioned Oxera, a leading international economics consultancy, to provide an independent expert opinion on the damages caused to drivers by the introduction of dynamic pay. Based on driver data from the UK and the Netherlands Oxera found that:

On average, Uber drivers in the UK affected by dynamic pay saw their incomes reduced by £5,300 per annum to date since 2021. In real terms, hourly pay for affected drivers fell by £3.44 per hour.

On average, Uber drivers in the Netherlands affected by dynamic pay saw their incomes reduced by €7,500 per annum to date since 2022. In real terms, hourly pay for affected drivers fell by €7.15 per hour.

Dynamic pay technology and its impact on workers

As Uber progressively introduced new technologies using artificial intelligence and machine learning, workforce surveillance and the processing of personal data became more intensive while the information about it provided to drivers became ever more opaque.

Uber’s workforce surveillance and decision-making technologies seek not only to predict driver behaviour, but also to influence and manage it. At the same time, work and pay have become increasingly unpredictable for Uber drivers, with many having to work longer hours to make up for lost pay.

As workers in the so-called gig economy, Uber drivers already suffer from low pay and weak employment protections. The uncertainty, variability and reduced pay caused by dynamic pay has significantly worsened the conditions of gig workers in recent years.

James Farrar, Director of Worker Info Exchange International, said:

It’s bad enough that Uber’s dynamic pay algorithms have squeezed driver pay for years now, but the intrusive and underhanded way in which Uber uses its technology to monitor and influence drivers’ behaviour is an affront to their dignity as workers and as human beings.

By participating in this collective action for algorithmic justice, Uber drivers are not only protecting their own interests; they are also setting boundaries for big tech companies: the law must be obeyed, and workers and the communities that economically depend upon them must be respected.”

Next steps

The claim has been filed in the Amsterdam District Court under the Dutch collective action regime (WAMCA). Worker Info Exchange International will continue to work with Uber drivers, trade unions and worker organisations throughout the proceedings and Uber drivers are invited to continue to sign up to participate in the collective action at www.dynamicpay.org.

_________________
IDFIMH

This was on the Guardian's website earlier this week


Uber drivers launch European class action over ‘soulless’ and ‘scary’ AI algorithm

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... -algorithm

Landmark lawsuit claims tech company’s pay-setting system has breached privacy laws and pushed down earnings

Uber drivers have launched a landmark legal action against the ride-hailing company claiming they live in “constant fear” of a “soulless” algorithm it uses to set pay and allocate jobs.

Drivers from the UK, the Netherlands and other countries have joined the compensation claim that could run into billions of dollars. It alleges an AI-powered pay-setting system breaches data protection laws and pushes down their earnings.

The claim has been filed at Amsterdam’s district court, where the $150bn (£111bn) San Francisco tech company has its European HQ. It is the first collective legal move of its kind, according to the European Trade Union Confederation.

The case centres on an opaque “black box” algorithm fed on information about drivers, which sets a personalised rate for each ride. Drivers fear it pushes down fares to the minimum they are willing to accept.

Drivers have told the Guardian the algorithm has offered the same job to different people at different pay rates and offers them less for a return journey after a long trip because it calculates they will not want to come home empty.

“It is like someone watching you all the time and knowing about your weakness – the boss is the algorithm,” said Mohammed Shirwa, a 41-year-old Uber driver in Rotterdam. “All the time the algorithm is learning about you and what you are willing to accept. So the prices go low but you are stuck. It knows you need the job.”

Kola Oba, who calls the algorithm “soulless”, was taking a break in Tottenham, north London, with another driver when they were offered the same job.

The other driver was offered £27 and Oba was offered £23. The pair suspected it was because Oba, 48, had taken several cheap jobs and the AI assumed he would accept a lower price. Uber has previously said such discrepancies were down to other features of its system including GPS, surge pricing, promotions and testing.

“It’s scary – they have all my information and they are using it against my own wellbeing,” Oba said. “It defines how much I earn, how long I have to work, my time with my family, my resting time.”

AI models take an increasing role in assigning work to humans by using their rapidly increasing power to learn about a business’s needs and staff behaviour and then acting as a “synthetic manager”.

The Dutch data protection authority fined ⁠Uber €825m (£708m) last month for deactivating driver ⁠accounts through automated systems without ​adequate notice. Uber said it would appeal. The company is also planning to roll out driverless cars in European cities from London to Zagreb, initially with human supervisions.

The legal case is being led by the Worker Info Exchange, a campaign group whose founder, James Farrar, secured a UK supreme court ruling that Uber drivers should have worker rights.

Relating to about 241,000 drivers across the EU and the UK, the claim alleges that Uber has unlawfully used automated decision-making, including profiling, in dynamically setting pay and allocating work.

The lawsuit, which also claims the company unlawfully used driver data to train its AI models, is seeking damages for affected drivers and an injunction to halt the conduct which it claims breaches GDPR data regulations.

The drivers claim Uber has operated dynamic pay-setting in the UK since 2023, pushing down their annual incomes by about £5,000. The system was introduced in the Netherlands this year.

Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, said in 2023: “I think that what we can do better is targeting of different trips to different drivers based on their preferences or based on behavioural patterns that they’re showing us.”

Uber said it did not adjust the price offered for a trip based on an individual driver’s behaviour and that a history of accepting or rejecting trips was not used to personalise pay offers. Instead, it said, dynamic pricing allowed it to increase pay on less attractive trips, boosting a driver’s earning potential.

“While we haven’t seen the claim yet, we categorically reject the allegations,” an Uber spokesperson said.

“The Uber app uses real-time information about the trip such as journey, duration and destination to calculate fares.

“Drivers see their earnings and where a trip is going before they decide whether to accept it. The vast majority of total fares continue to go where they belong: into drivers’ pockets, and the percentage that Uber keeps from fares has remained relatively flat.”

A 2025 study by academics at the University of Oxford, which Uber said relied on incomplete and selective data, found there had been substantial cuts in driver earnings after the “dynamic” algorithm was introduced.

Farrar said: “It’s bad enough that Uber’s dynamic pay algorithms have squeezed driver pay for years now but the intrusive and underhanded way in which Uber uses its technology to monitor and influence drivers’ behaviour is an affront to their dignity as workers and as human beings.”

Anton Ekker, a Dutch lawyer leading the case, said: “A computer algorithm should not independently make decisions that strip individuals of their livelihood. Like so many other online platforms, it should be held accountable for the large-scale exploitation of vulnerabilities of European citizens.”