UK Uber drivers owed £18,000 each since court ruling, says GMB

The row about the employment status of Uber drivers has flared up again, as a trade union alleges that each UK driver is owed approximately £18,000. This follows a refusal from the company to accept a two-year old court ruling, says the GMB, the union which looks after the interests of professional drivers. The Central London Employment Tribunal ruled in 2016 that Uber drivers are entitled to holiday pay, a guaranteed minimum wage and rest bre
October 29, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

The row about the employment status of Uber drivers has flared up again, as a trade union alleges that each UK driver is owed approximately £18,000.

This follows a refusal from the company to accept a two-year old court ruling, says the GMB, the union which looks after the interests of professional drivers.

The Central London Employment Tribunal ruled in 2016 that Uber drivers are entitled to holiday pay, a guaranteed minimum wage and rest breaks.

The company disputes some of this but is well aware of the debate over employment status – a comment in Uber London’s latest accounts warns shareholders: “The Uber group [is exposed] to numerous legal and regulatory risks, including, among others, the application, interpretation and enforcement of existing regulations related to Uber group’s business model.”

A Court of Appeal hearing is scheduled for this week. But Sue Harris, GMB legal director, says: “The company needs to stop wasting money dragging its lost cause through the courts. Instead, Uber should do the decent thing and give drivers the rights to which those courts have already said they are legally entitled.”

Enforcement

Related Content

  • Walk | Don’t Walk – actually, just Don’t Walk
    March 17, 2025
    In 1925 a traffic ordinance was introduced in Los Angeles. The 100-year anniversary is significant because, transportation historian Peter Norton suggests, the law in effect set the blueprint for car-dependency across the US. Adam Hill asks him how…
    Read More
  • Avoiding the call of the wild
    June 29, 2018
    Hitting an animal on a rural road can be fatal for all parties involved – but detecting and avoiding them requires clever technology. Andrew Williams carefully scans the horizon for details. Wildlife-vehicle collisions are an ever-present threat in rural areas around the world, and there is certainly nothing funny about suddenly finding an angry moose in your headlights on a sharp bend. A variety of detection and avoidance systems are currently in use or under development to help prevent your vehicle being
    Read More
  • UK government to investigate best practice for travel information
    January 30, 2012
    The UK Government has been advised by an internal inquiry that it should investigate examples of best practice in travel information services. So where might it look? Jon Masters reports. Publication of a UK Government report on road congestion this year has highlighted a need to look beyond home borders when searching out answers to pressing problems. With regard to issues of travel information in particular, UK transport professionals would do well to look overseas for solutions they can emulate.
    Read More
  • Six easy steps to security
    October 22, 2018
    As security threats become increasingly vast and varied, multinationals are beginning to see the need for an effective global security operations centre to protect their organisation. James I. Chong spells out what is required. You know you need a global security operations centre (GSOC) to support what you’ve built, identify threats, and prevent disasters before they happen - but how do you know if it’s truly effective? There’s no shortage of information coming into operation centres. Too often, it’s the
    Read More

Highlighted Content