An Uber car in town (illustration).
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M.ASTAR / SIPA
Uber drivers, who were banned from the app overnight, have denounced brutal methods, hoping to assert their rights and recognize what they describe as unfair dismissal.
“I started my day at 6:00 am, did three runs and turned off the app to take a break.
When I turned it on again, I was stuck ”.
Charifa El Idrissi had worked for Uber for three and a half years.
On October 13, 2020, she was suddenly banned from the app and will never have access to it again.
Violation of a clause of the terms of use
Accused of "fraudulent activities while using the application", she is permanently disconnected.
"You do not have the opportunity to appeal," Uber told him in his email.
Despite several reminders and meeting requests that went unheeded, she still does not know the reason for her disconnection.
"I want to know," hammers the young woman.
"I was a diamond driver, I had a note of 4.94 / 5 and a 97% acceptance rate," insists Charifa El Idrissi, who suddenly found herself without income with several members of her family in her care.
She intends to sue but for lack of means, she waits to touch the solidarity fund, open for professions affected by the coronavirus crisis.
Ahmed Souna, disconnected in March just before the first confinement after two years of service at Uber, has initiated a process before the industrial tribunal.
"I really do not see what I did", assures the young man in his thirties.
Like Charifa El Idrissi, he is accused of having violated a clause of the conditions of use, without further details.
Former drivers targeted
Each month he worked for Uber, Ahmed Souna says he was disconnected between 7 and 10 days for refusing shopping.
Until the decision is final.
He had "no right to unemployment after the disconnection" and now lives thanks to the solidarity fund.
Jérôme Giusti is a lawyer and, with his firm, he defends nearly 270 drivers who are victims of the same mishap.
For each of them, he asks before the industrial tribunal “damages for dismissal without real or serious cause”.
Even if the relationship between Uber and the drivers is not based on an employment contract, "we cannot end a business relationship established unilaterally and instantly like that", asserts Me Giusti.
The lawyer notes that often, "it is the oldest drivers, the most demanding", who are disconnected.
According to a survey conducted by the INV union, 90% of the 51 disconnected drivers surveyed had worked for Uber for two years or more.
they generated an average turnover of 4,199 euros per month and worked 58 hours per week.
Almost eight in ten say they have been disconnected without warning and nine in ten say they have had no recourse.
New terms of use
In July, Uber added an appendix to its terms of service in which the company specifies that it “may permanently restrict” access to the application “without particular reason and at any time”.
Notice must be sent thirty days in advance, but there are many exceptions listed to allow Uber to refrain from doing so.
"We try to give as much context as we can," says Rym Saker, spokesperson for the American firm.
"But it is obvious that, in the context of a deactivation for safety reasons, we will not tell the driver," continues Uber.
The platform ensures disconnections for non-compliance of documents (license, private driver card, etc.), fraud (rental of an account) but also “security reasons”, such as physical or verbal attacks reported by customers.
"When incidents go back to a driver, we take the measure to disconnect the time to check the versions of each other," says Rym Saker.
A motif brandished as a joker card by Uber mocks Brahim Ben Ali, secretary of the INV union, himself disconnected at the end of 2019. In the case of Charifa El Idrissi, “we were simply told, + we have no explanation to give you + ”, annoys the union representative.
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