Uber – The Ruling And Its Likely Impact

The Supreme Court has delivered its decision on the long running Uber case (Uber BV v Aslam & Others UKSC 2019/0029).

In essence the case was to determine whether Uber drivers were (a) genuinely self-employed or (b) "workers".

Uber had argued that their drivers were self-employed contractors who performed services for third parties (passengers) with Uber acting as a booking agent through its technology platform.  The Supreme Court disagreed holding that the drivers were in fact workers and as such were entitled to benefits such as holiday pay and national minimum wage. 

Factors that were considered included the fact that Uber sets the fares and that drivers are not permitted to set their own prices and that drivers were monitored and could be penalized if they failed to accept a sufficient number of fares.  Broadly, Uber controlled the driver's interactions with their passengers and Uber gained the goodwill and loyalty of the customers, not the individual