After years of legal proceedings, the UK’s Supreme Court, the country’s highest court, ruled on 19 February that the drivers operating via the US application Uber should not be considered as self-employed but rather as “workers” (see the UK government's definition here), who are thereby entitled to a minimum wage and paid holiday, even if they are not “employees”. This ground-breaking decision – which is likely to shake up the gig economy – will improve the working conditions of tens of thousands of drivers and most likely force Uber to pay thousands of pounds in compensation.
Reacting to the Supreme Court decision, Yaseen Aslam, president of the App Drivers & Couriers Union (ADCU), said: “I think it’s a massive achievement in a way that we were able to stand up against a giant.” Mr Aslam, one of two Uber drivers to originally bring the case to a UK employment tribunal, added: “We didn’t give up and we were consistent – no matter what we went through emotionally or physically or financially, we stood our ground.” Their first complaint against Uber dates back to 2016
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