Plea before high court to treat Ola and Uber driver as employees

Delhi High Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre and city government on a petition seeking formation of a committee to see whether drivers working for cab aggregator such as Uber and Ola should be classified as their employees.

The petition says the panel should ascertain if these drivers be made eligible to receive benefits such as compensation in cases of accidents or deaths.

Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva gave the direction on the plea filed by the Delhi Commercial Driver Union, which says the committee should be made to look into their complaints and make recommendations to improve the work and pay conditions of drivers.

The petition filed by advocates Akash Vajpai and Shoumendu Mukherji sought direction to Uber and Ola to pay compensation to the drivers who are victims of road accidents or to their family in case of their death during the course of employment.

The plea alleged “deplorable working and pay conditions of the drivers” saying that drivers have to suffer due to “arbitrary deductions in their payments…without even giving them a chance to respond”.

It said, cab aggregators “have been changing service conditions relating to wages, hours of work, withdrawal of concession and privilege, introduction of new rules of discipline and alteration of existing rules without giving any statutory notice”.