Uber grants UK drivers salaried worker status
Uber will grant its British drivers the status of salaried workers, with minimum wage and paid leave.
AFP / File
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In the UK, Uber drivers will now be able to benefit from social benefits.
This is a world first for the American online car reservation giant and a profound change for the company whose drivers have until now been self-employed.
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All British Uber drivers, ie more than 70,000 drivers, will benefit from the status of salaried worker from this Wednesday March 17th.
This status opens the way to advantages: drivers will receive at least the minimum wage, will be entitled to paid vacation and will be able to contribute to a retirement savings plan to which the company will contribute.
A world first for American society.
Until now its drivers have been self-employed.
The American car reservation giant announced Tuesday, March 16 in a statement that all of its drivers in the country will benefit from these benefits the next day.
Uber made the move a month after a resounding defeat at the UK Supreme Court.
The latter estimated on February 19 that
Uber drivers could be considered "workers"
.
The highest British court had thus ruled in favor of some twenty company drivers who felt they were entitled to worker status given the time spent connected to the application and the control exercised by the group, for example on their assessment.
A snowball effect?
The car reservations platform is currently only applying such a measure in the UK, but such a decision could well snowball across all digital platforms.
The deliverers of Deliveroo, a food delivery application, are waiting for the decision of the London Court of Appeal to find out whether they can benefit from a collective agreement in order to have better working conditions.
In Spain, the government has taken the lead by announcing on Thursday an amendment to its Labor Code which now automatically considers home deliverers of all platforms as salaried employees.
We do not yet know the cost of these measures for Uber, but they should necessarily weigh on the finances of the company which is not yet profitable and is suffering the consequences of health restrictions.
(with AFP)
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