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Uber will have to pay UK drivers a minimum wage, pension and more

With the threat of a class action lawsuit being brought against Uber in South Africa, news coming out of the UK may help local drivers who want to be classified as employees, and reap the benefits of that locally.

Last month Uber lost a legal battle in the UK that started in 2016. The result is that the UK Supreme Court ruled that Uber drivers are classified as workers which grants them more rights than independent contractors but less rights than employees.

But what does this mean for the drivers?

A report from the BBC reveals that all Uber drivers would earn a minimum wage (£8.72 an hour at time of writing but that figure climbs to £8.91 next month), paid holiday time and they would be enrolled into a pension plan. We should point out that this minimum wage only applies when a driver accepts a trip request.

Uber also said that it would continue to provide free insurance which covers sickness, injury, maternity and paternity payments which is available to all drivers.

“Uber is just one part of a larger private-hire industry, so we hope that all other operators will join us in improving the quality of work for these important workers who are an essential part of our everyday lives,” regional manager for Uber in Northern Europe, Jamie Heywood said.

“Drivers have consistently told us that they wanted both the flexibility that we provided but also they wanted the benefits and we’ve been struggling to find a way of bringing those two together in a way that work for us and work for drivers,” added Heywood.

But the two former drivers who launched the legal battle against Uber say that the firm still isn’t giving drivers what is due to them.

James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam welcomed the ruling but said that drivers will, “still be short-changed to the tune of 40-50 percent. Also, it is not acceptable for Uber to unilaterally decide the driver expense base in calculating minimum wage. This must be subject to collective agreement”.

Analysts predict that this decision from the Supreme Court will have ramifications throughout the gig-economy in the UK and many are wondering out loud what the impact could be for other businesses.

Here in South Africa we’re curious to see if a similar argument is made in a bid to classify Uber drivers as more than simply independent contractors.

Indeed, the gig-economy is facing scrutiny around the world and we suspect we’ll be seeing more independent contractors being classified as workers as more legal challenges pop up.

Of course, if legal challenges become too much for these firms they can always leave certain territories though given how entrenched the likes of Uber is in South Africa, it might not be as simple as picking up and running.

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