What's Your Status? Implications Of The Uber Judgment

Matthew Cranton recently joined Fletcher Day as a Partner in both the Employment and Business Immigration teams. In this article, he considers the issues and implications of the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Uber and others v Aslam and others [2021] UKSC 5, which considered the question of worker status for Uber drivers.

Introduction

The employment status of "worker" was introduced as a legally defined term by the Employment Rights Act 1996, yet the meaning has shifted in practical terms over the years. The definition has been particularly tested by the emergence of the "gig economy", which the BEIS define as involving "the exchange of labour for money between individuals or companies via digital platforms that actively facilitate matching between providers and customers, on a short-term and payment by task basis". The popularity of mobile and online platforms providing a connection between independent contractors and end users has boomed in recent