Two Ex-Uber Drivers Win Legal Battle Against Uber Over Workers Rights
Two Ex-Uber Drivers Win Legal Battle Against Uber Over Workers Rights. Two ex-Uber drivers have won a legal battle against the e-hailing company Uber over workers’ rights. Yaseen Aslam and James Farrar began the case in 2016, fighting for minimum wage and other rights. They finally won their case as they endured a 5 year long battle with one of the biggest e-hailing companies in the world.
Aslam told Insider that, “I was delighted, it means a lot, I didn’t just do it for myself I did it for the workers and drivers. I’m just a driver who spoke up for injustice.”
According to Aslam, Uber’s business model involves mass recruiting and flooding the streets with drivers and cars, while keeping fares cheap to attract customers. This has long been a criticism of Uber and its business model – that the firm, which was initially funded by private capital, could afford to keep fares very low at the expense of drivers and the competition. This meant that Uber had no consideration for the driver’s rights as they had minimal protections, including no sick pay and Uber would avoid the costs of paying minimum wage.
Aslam told Insider that “Uber relies on exploiting people and they go for a mass scaling model and I think it’s wrong. I believe the customer should take some responsibility in the pricing as there’s a human cost involved. There’s someone behind that wheel and they need to have rights.”
Farrar told Insider that Uber is not accepting the ruling of the court and it is likely that it will not acknowledge the decision. “Uber is trying to spin a line to drivers that this ruling only applies to the original claimants and not to all drivers. Not only is it untrue but it’s demonstrably contrary to the spirit of the ruling.” said Farrar.
A statement from Jamie Heywood, Uber’s regional general manager for northern and eastern Europe said, “We respect the court’s decision which focussed on a small number of drivers who used the Uber app in 2016. Since then we have made some significant changes to our business, guided by drivers every step of the way. These include giving even more control over how they earn and providing new protections like free insurance in case of sickness or injury. We are committed to doing more and will now consult with every active driver across the UK to understand the changes they want to see.”
