Taxi Driver Online

Uber to pay drivers a minimum wage, holiday pay and pensions

Uber says it will give its UK drivers a guaranteed minimum wage, holiday pay and pensions.

The ride-hailing app giant said drivers would earn at least the UK's National Living Wage, paid to the over 25s, of £8.72 an hour.

It comes one month after the US firm lost a legal battle in the UK, begun in 2016, over drivers' status.

Uber told the BBC it did not expect the change in drivers' conditions to mean higher fares.

In a hearing at the UK Supreme Court last month, Uber had argued it was a third-party booking agent, and its drivers were self employed.

But the court ruled its drivers were workers, a category that means they are entitled to minimum legal, holiday and pension rights.

The company is being challenged by its drivers in multiple countries over whether they should be classed as workers or self-employed.

Workers' rights

Uber said the changes to its UK drivers' pay would come in almost instantly, from Wednesday, and form an earnings floor, not an earnings ceiling.

The company, which says it has 70,000 drivers in the UK, said the new rates would come on top of free insurance to cover sickness, injury and maternity and paternity payments which have been in place for all drivers since 2018.

Uber says payment will kick in at:

At least the minimum wage for over 25s, after accepting a trip request and after expenses.

All drivers will be paid holiday time based on 12.07% of their earnings, paid out on a fortnightly basis.

Drivers will automatically be enrolled into a pension plan with contributions from Uber alongside driver contributions, setting drivers up over the long term.

Continued free insurance in case of sickness or injury as well as parental payments, which have been in place for all drivers since 2018.

All drivers will retain the freedom to choose if, when and where they drive.

Jamie Heywood, regional general manager for Northern Europe at Uber, said: "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."

Uber pointed out in its statement announcing the changes that a worker is a classification that is unique under UK employment law. Workers are not full-blown employees but are entitled to the minimum wage, holiday pay and a pension.

Waiting time

The company said the recent UK Supreme Court ruling had provided a clearer path forward as to a model that gives drivers the rights of worker status - while continuing to let them work flexibly.

In a long-running legal battle, Uber had finally appealed to the court after losing three earlier rounds. The Supreme Court ruled that Uber had to consider its drivers as "workers" from the time they logged onto the app, until they logged off.

This was a key point because Uber drivers typically spend time waiting for people to book rides on the app, for which they don't get paid.

Previously, the firm had said that if drivers were found to be workers, then it would only count the time during journeys when a passenger is in the car.

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IDFIMH

Fella makes a good point.

Be interested to see what the larger firms do now, when one considers how much they have slagged off Uber in the past.

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IDFIMH

All that said.

Well done to the lads who have fought Uber for all these years, fighting for no more than the rights most other workers take for granted.

And well done to the unions and lawyers who have fought the good fight with those lads.

And lastly well done to Uber for actually implementing those measures at long last.

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IDFIMH

Doubt many other people will be getting a 12.07% increase this year.

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IDFIMH

Councils will have to ensure that all licensed operators are given workers rights to their drivers of a similar or better nature than uber.
They shouted long enough about a level playing field, if they do not comply and offer equal rights the boot will be on the other foot and uber will rightly claim they are operating in what is not a level playing field.

The minimum wage goes up to £8.91 on April 1st.

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Grandad,

How would it work say I have just done a 50 hour week so £436
And my Fuel is £100 and my Insurance is E.g. £40 + £10 (other expenses) PW who will pay for that and how will it be all worked out?

As with most things the devil will be in the detail, and I have no doubt there will be a number of caveats that Uber haven’t announced in their press release.

The biggest benefit for me isn’t the minimum wage matter but the holiday and sickness premium. Uber are applying it in a very similar way as many authorities including the NHS do for their part time staff. Which is good.

As for the minimum wage and expenses issue, well to answer your question that shouldn’t be too hard to calculate. The minimum wage is fixed by central government and we could use the expense rate that volunteers get, which I believe is 45p a mile.

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IDFIMH

This may not last too long as it entitles them to workers rights BUT Uber will not be paying tax and national insurance on their wages ...

Last week I was asked by a customer what self employment was like as his employer (a large multinational construction firm) was thinking of going down these lines and putting everyone on as worker status with an estimated saving of £150 million a year on their tax and national insurance bill

HMG is needing an increasing tax take to fund the covid crisis so if threatened with an increasing number of the workforce becoming "worker" status as opposed to employed will HMG decide to legislate and make the rules on self employment tighter to keep the tax revenues flowing ?

I think uber will set up a company pension scheme with large chunks of their "workers" pensions under their control and the big detail is of course will they leave drivers logged onto the system between jobs or count logged on time only towards the minimum wage

According to discussions on the radio this morning Uber are expecting this move to bring a new rush of drivers coming on board for the benefits from other PH firms we'll see

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

On the news this morning a chap from UBER was being interviewed and the reporter stated that the drivers would be paid from when they accepted a job and not from when they logged on the system and off the system.

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Grandad,

Yes, can't be bothered looking at the detail of all this, but I'm guessing there's a huge dollop of smoke and mirrors involved, aka PR.


On that basis, and as per a bog standard run for me here (a one-mile T2 run to the student halls) I'm taking something like £100 per hour

But if I'm only doing one run per hour, unfortunately it doesn't quite stack up like that looks

So I wouldn't be surprised if Uber planning to pay on the basis of something inbetween *all* the time that the driver's logged in at one extreme, and only when the car is loaded at the other extreme.

So if they're paid from when they accept the job then that's a bit more than just when the car is loaded, but not quite all the time that the driver is logged on

That's the killer line, surely?

It seems to me that Uber are cherry picking the SC judgement ? Surely that puts them in contempt of court ?

But if the minimum wage was supposed to be guaranteed for all logged-on time it was never going to work without Uber turning its business model upside down, basically, and they can't do that in a couple of weeks with a few relatively minor tweaks.

It's a bit like your council guaranteeing taxi drivers £15 per hour just for turning up at the ranks. The ranks would be overflowing 24/7, and people would be queued outside council offices for new badges.

And the council would soon be bankrupted.

BUT this is exactly what uber are expecting to happen a large number of drivers switching from traditional PH firms to them for the benefits

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector