Quite a few interesting nuggets here
Uber claims rivals deny drivers their rights
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/uber ... -jp7q78x72
The ride-hailer says that abiding by the Supreme Court ruling on status puts it at a disadvantage
Uber has accused its rivals in the London ride-hailing market of disregarding a recent Supreme Court ruling on the status of gig economy workers.
Jamie Heywood, who runs the American giant’s UK operation, said that competitors such as Ola and Bolt continue to deny drivers benefits such as holiday and sick pay and a pension.
“They need to step up,” Heywood, 52, said. “They need to read the details of the Supreme Court decision.”
He claimed that Uber had long desired to offer greater protection to drivers, but that it needed Britain’s highest court to provide the necessary “clarity”.
Uber spent five years fighting a claim from a group of its drivers, who had demanded to be treated as workers. The 35 claimants argued that the company’s role in controlling their work, setting fares and allocating customers meant that they should be classed as self-employed contractors. In its landmark ruling in February, the Supreme Court unanimously found against Uber because of drivers’ “subordination and dependency” on the app.
In March Uber gave its UK drivers worker status, meaning that they receive holiday and sick pay, a workplace pension and a minimum earnings guarantee. They earn at least the statutory minimum wage, but only for when they are assigned to a customer’s trip, not for waiting time.
In May, Uber recognised the GMB union, marking the first such deal for the Silicon Valley group anywhere in the world. The union, which once attacked Uber for its “Dickensian actions and attitudes”, will represent tens of thousands of drivers in negotiations with the company and will mediate in disputes.
Uber, which was founded in San Francisco in 2009, is one of the world’s largest tax-hailing apps and on-demand food delivery operators with a market value of $95 billion. Uber has 70,000 drivers in the UK, including 45,000 in London. Heywood joined as general manager for the UK and northern Europe in 2018 from Amazon. Before that, the Oxford graduate worked in the telecoms industry.
He argued that Uber could have complied with the Supreme Court ruling and maintained the self-employed status of drivers. However, it would have had to rewrite its business model, such as by allowing drivers to set prices. “That would have created a lot of complexity. You would have had to let drivers drive any vehicle and we would have had safety concerns with that,” Heywood said.
Rivals have not followed Uber’s lead in upgrading the status of cabbies, creating confusion for drivers, who juggle multiple apps during their working day. They are deemed a worker when they accept an Uber ride but as a self-employed contractor when taking a fare through the Bolt or Ola apps.
“It doesn’t make sense. Other operators, I believe, need to need to step up. They have not made any material changes,” Heywood said.
He predicted a wave of legal actions from disgruntled drivers who would sue for better conditions. These would not be “fruitful fights” for operators, according to Heywood, who cited a recent Court of Appeal decision that ruled Addison Lee drivers should enjoy worker benefits.
The courts are stepping into a breach left by the government. It had been expected to put forward an employment bill with promised reforms to the gig economy, but the legislation did not feature in the Queen’s speech.
The piecemeal approach creates anomalies, with gig workers treated differently for performing ostensibly similar tasks. Food delivery riders, including those of Uber Eats, will not receive worker benefits in the near future after Deliveroo scored a victory in the appeal court on Thursday. That ruling hinged on couriers’ right to find a substitute to deliver an order if they chose not to do it themselves — an option not available to cab drivers because of licensing rules.
The changes to its car-hailing business have raised Uber’s overheads in Britain. Drivers receive a top-up of 12 per cent of earnings for their holiday entitlement and a 3 per cent pension contribution. The company has set aside $600 million to cover the cost of driver employment claims from the Supreme Court ruling. Yet it is on track to reach profitability globally by the end of the year.
The pandemic eviscerated its ride-hailing business, but a rise in orders at its Uber Eats division cushioned the blow. By May, Uber’s UK division had bounced back to pre-Covid levels after the easing of lockdown restrictions.
“There’s growth now in the evening hours but we’ve not fully recovered in commuting and work hours,” said Heywood, who noted a sharp rise in customers taking trips in the suburbs of cities such as London.
The company aims to go fully electric in London by 2025 and nationwide by 2030 and is working with councils such as Tower Hamlets to increase the number of charging points. “Ninety per cent of drivers drive less than 200 miles a day, so they can do a full day’s work on one charge,” Heywood said.
Business will continue to grow as Britain awakes from lockdown. Uber expects to add 20,000 drivers in Britain this year and its UK chief believes that offering worker rights will give the company a competitive edge over rivals. Last week, The App Drivers & Couriers Union called a one-day boycott of Bolt to protest against the status of its cabbies. Bolt insisted its business model differs from Uber’s and that its drivers value the “flexible hours and freedom to choose” when they work. Ola declined to comment.
