Uber have lost their appeal to the Supreme Court over the ruling that their drivers are classified as Workers and not Self Employed. Uber had contested the original decision as they believed it only applied to a small number of people and that they had addressed the concerns with this matter. However the ruling now means that not only Uber but many other organisations will need to look closely at how they are utilising self employed contractors in their business.
This all comes down to level of control and choices that a person can make during their working time. For Uber, it has been ruled that they take control of the workload of that person from the moment they clock on as available to when the clock off which qualifies them as a Worker. This now gives them some rights including minimum wage, holiday pay and protection from whistleblowing but not employee rights. The ruling has also included that, those who qualify, will be able to apply for backpay of earnings for up to two years (not finalised so may be longer) or £25K whichever is larger through an employment tribunal or up to six years in the County Court and 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave for each year worked. This has an enormous financial impact for Uber.
Any organisation that uses self employed contractors will now need to look very closely at how these people are utilised in their business and if this president could apply to them.
