Uber is giving its UK drivers the minimum wage, pensions and
holiday pay, following a recent court ruling that said they should be
classified as workers and entitled to such benefits.
The ride hailing giant's announcement on Tuesday comes after
it lost an appeal last month at the UK Supreme Court following a years-long
court battle. The court's decision holds wider implications for the country's
gig economy.
Uber said it's extending the benefits immediately to its
more than 70,000 drivers in the UK. Drivers will earn at least the minimum
wage, which currently stands at $12.12 (8.72 pounds), after accepting a trip
request and expenses, and will still be able to earn more.
Drivers will also get holiday pay equal to about 12% of
their earnings, paid every two weeks. And they'll be enrolled in a pension plan
that both they and the company will pay into.
“This is an important day for drivers in the U.K.,"
Uber's regional general manager for Northern and Eastern Europe, Jamie Heywood,
said in a filing to the SEC. He noted that drivers will still be able to work
on a flexible basis. “Uber is just one part of a larger private-hire industry,
so we hope that all other operators will join us in improving the quality of
work for these important workers who are an essential part of our everyday
lives.”
The drivers who filed the case welcomed the news but said
it's not enough.
Uber has “arrived to the table with this offer a day late
and a dollar short, literally,” James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam of the App
Drivers And Couriers Union said in a statement.
They said the changes stopped short of the Supreme Court's
ruling that pay should be calculated from when drivers log on to the app until
they log off.
And they said the company can't decide by itself the expense
base for calculating the minimum wage, which should be based on a collective agreement.
Farrar and Aslam had taken their case to an employment
tribunal, which found drivers are not independent contractors, but should be
designated workers, which under British law means their work terms are more
casual than employees but still come with some benefits.
Uber lost two rounds of appeals before the Supreme Court
decision.
Providing more benefits for its drivers is likely to raise
costs for San Francisco-based Uber, which already was struggling to make a
profit and had previously run into regulatory trouble in London, where
authorities had sought to revoke its license.
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