exchemist
Veteran Member
I was delighted to read this today: Uber drivers are workers not self-employed, Supreme Court rules
So Uber drivers are now employees, not self employed and are now covered by laws on minimum wage, holiday and sick leave, etc.
This will have far-reaching consequences for the “gig” economy, I think, and a good job too.
It’s a scandal the way some of these organisations slough off their responsibilities by this fiction of making employees into self-employed. There is a piece in the latest Private Eye about some guy who signed up as a driver for a parcels delivery group, to find he was classed as self-employed, so no minimum wage, sick leave, holidays etc. He had to rent the van from a leasing company and pay a set insurance premium against damage (some damage is common for people who drive 50,000 miles a year), with a £2,500 excess, meaning that if you have a scrape you have to pay it yourself, out of your derisory earnings after paying for van rental etc. Atrocious - and this sort of thing applies to an increasing numbers of people nowadays.
This landmark judgement will make it harder for these sorts of scammy and oppressive employment practices to be sustained.
So Uber drivers are now employees, not self employed and are now covered by laws on minimum wage, holiday and sick leave, etc.
This will have far-reaching consequences for the “gig” economy, I think, and a good job too.
It’s a scandal the way some of these organisations slough off their responsibilities by this fiction of making employees into self-employed. There is a piece in the latest Private Eye about some guy who signed up as a driver for a parcels delivery group, to find he was classed as self-employed, so no minimum wage, sick leave, holidays etc. He had to rent the van from a leasing company and pay a set insurance premium against damage (some damage is common for people who drive 50,000 miles a year), with a £2,500 excess, meaning that if you have a scrape you have to pay it yourself, out of your derisory earnings after paying for van rental etc. Atrocious - and this sort of thing applies to an increasing numbers of people nowadays.
This landmark judgement will make it harder for these sorts of scammy and oppressive employment practices to be sustained.