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Wednesday, March 17, 2021

UK Uber drivers to get minimum wage, holidays

The drivers who filed the UK case welcomed the news but said it was not enough.

• March 17, 2021
Uber Taxi

Uber drivers in the United Kingdom will receive minimum wage, pensions and holiday pay.

The ride-hailing company announced on Tuesday after losing an appeal at the UK Supreme Court following a long legal tussle insisting its drivers are independent contractors.

The minimum wage will be given to the driver as trips are accepted. Uber said the benefits would be extended immediately to its more than 70,000 drivers in the UK. 

However, the company said it did not expect the wage to reflect higher fares payable by the customers. 

Drivers will earn at least the minimum wage, which currently stands at £8.72, about $16, when they have accepted a trip and expenses, and will still be able to earn more. 

They will get holiday earnings equal to about 12 percent of their earnings every two weeks and be enrolled in a pension plan for the drivers and the company.

The drivers who filed the UK case welcomed the news but said it was not enough.

James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam of the App Drivers and Couriers Union said, in a statement, the decision was arrived at “arrived at the table with this offer a day late and a dollar short.”

They said the changes stopped short of the Supreme Court’s ruling that pay should be calculated when drivers log on to the app until they log off. 

They also said the company could not decide the expense base for calculating the minimum wage, which should be based on a collective agreement.

The suit was first filed by Mssrs Aslam and Farrar in 2016 when both men drove for Uber.

Last month, the court ruled that a group of Uber drivers that brought a case to an employment tribunal were not independent contractors because their activities were “very tightly defined and controlled by Uber.” 

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