United Kingdom: High Court permits union to challenge government on lack of protections for gig economy workers

On 9 July, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain revealed that the UK High Court has granted the union permission to challenge health and safety legislation in the country. Amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the IWGB will be able to proceed with a so-called judicial review and ask for a judge to rule on whether the UK government has failed in its obligation to transpose health and safety directives from EU law into UK law. The IWGB believes that, although according to the European directives all workers must be protected, in reality only those with the status of employee benefit from this. Henry Chango Lopez, president of the IWGB, says: “Gig economy workers have been among those with the highest death rates from Covid-19. This isn’t by accident, but the result of a failure by this and past governments to properly implement health and safety legislation.” If the judicial review goes in their favour, the union hopes to obtain additional protections for thousands of workers and to allow gig economy workers – classified as workers by law, such as Uber drivers (see article n°10442) – the right to protective equipment against the virus or to bring legal action against an employer if a worker suffers a detriment or is dismissed after refusing to work under unsafe conditions.