Skip to main content

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.”

Related Content

  • UK fleet operators commit to taking diesel vans off roads
    September 6, 2018
    In the UK, 16 public and private sector fleet operators are to invest £40m in a bid to deploy 2,400 electric vans by 2020. The operators – which include Tesco - point to a recent study, in which the health damage caused by pollution from diesel vans has been put at £2.2bn per annum to the UK National Health Service and to society. The newly-formed consortium – called the Clean Van Commitment – is backed by the Department for Transport and led by charity Global Action Plan and energy and services group Engi
  • Is GIS modelling the answer to the implications of age?
    January 26, 2012
    Geoff Zeiss of Autodesk talks about the convergence going on between GIS and other software systems which will revolutionise the design and construction of nations' utilities. The issue is that we're getting old. But forget the discovery of body hair in places it never used to be, whether or not to dye, contact lenses versus glasses - in fact, put aside entirely the decision to age gracefully or outrageously; the personal implications pale next to the effects on wider society. Faced with the problem of how
  • Cooperative infrastructure an aid to environmental aims
    February 3, 2012
    Speculate to accumulate Andras Kovacs looks at how the historical focus of cooperative infrastructure on safety can be oriented to aid emerging environmental aims
  • Technology and finance shapes up to make MaaS happen
    June 7, 2017
    The technology and finance aspects needed for Mobility as a Service (MaaS) to become widely adopted are taking shape as Geoff Hadwick and Colin Sowman hear. Sampo Hietanen, CEO of MaaS Global and ‘father’ of MaaS, started his address to ITS International’s recent MaaS Market conference in London by saying: “All of the problems that can be solved by a company or group of companies have already been solved, and now we are left with the big ones such as housing, transport and health. He called MaaS the “Netfli