A 'precarious workers protest' is planned in London tomorrow morning

The GMB union has claimed Uber drivers are struggling to pay their rent and feed their families because the company’s bosses continue to fight a court ruling.

Two years ago, a court ruled that Uber drivers were entitled to receive holiday pay, a guaranteed minimum wage and had an entitlement to rest breaks.

Instead of accepting that ruling though, the company appealed. They lost and then appealed again. All this time, Uber drivers were missing out on breaks and pay.

GMB’s lawyers Leigh Day estimate that Uber’s 40,000 drivers have lost £8,150 each in holiday pay and £10,750 from not being guranteed the minimum wage.

The company’s second appeal is being heard in the Court of Appeal tommorow and the IWGB, other trade unions and Momentum have organised a national demonstration to coincide with it.

The demonstration is titled “rise of the precarious workers” and will start at Transport for London at 8am before passing the Royal Courts of Justice (where Uber’s case is being heard) and the University of London (where workers are fighting to end outsourcing).

As well as still not receiving minimum wage or holiday pay, Uber drivers have been protesting recently about unfair deactivations – with the IWGB union claiming any complaint from a customer leads to a two or three week suspension and then either sacking or reinstatement with a warning.

James Farrar, Chair of the IWGB’s United Private Hire Drivers branch told Left Foot Forward “There’s no employment contract and no process – you can be fired without being told you’ve been fired. Uber really don’t want to enter a discussion/process about it,” Farrar says.

Workers are also angry at Uber for reducing fares at the same time it increased the amount of commission it takes from drivers from 20% to 25%.

So Uber drivers in the IWGB union are demanding:

• an end to what the union claims have been unfair ‘deactivations’,
• an increase in fares to £2 per mile (currently £1.25 in London), a 10% reduction in the commission paid by drivers to Uber – it is currently 25% for UberX
• That Uber accept the courts’ judgements

You can read more of Left Foot Forward’s coverage of the Uber drivers battles against their company here.

An Uber spokesperson relied: “Almost all taxi and private hire drivers have been self-employed for decades, long before our app existed. A recent Oxford University study found that drivers make more than the London Living Wage and want to keep the freedom to choose if, when and where they drive. If drivers were classed as workers they would inevitably lose some of the freedom and flexibility that comes with being their own boss.

“We believe the Employment Appeal Tribunal last year fundamentally misunderstood how we operate. For example, they relied on the assertion that drivers are required to take 80% of trips sent to them when logged into the app, which has never been the case in the UK.

“Of course we know there is more to do to make driving with Uber the best possible experience. Over the last two years we’ve made many changes to give drivers even more control over how they use the app, alongside more security through sickness, maternity and paternity protections. We’ll keep listening to drivers and introduce further improvements.”

Joe Lo is an investigative journalist and writes for Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twitter.

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