‘Uber drivers entitled to workers’ rights’
Uber Technologies Inc. lost a UK Supreme Court ruling over the rights of its drivers, in a landmark decision that threatens the company’s business model in the country. The judges said that Uber drivers are “workers” entitled to rights like minimum wage, holiday pay and rest breaks. The court said the contact terms were set by Uber and working conditions were controlled by the company. Uber drivers’ “working time is not limited to period when driving passengers,” judge George Leggatt said in a summary of the ruling. It also “includes any period when a driver is logged into the app and ready and willing to accept trips.” The ruling is the end of the road for Uber’s five-year fight over the status of its drivers and another setback for Uber in the UK, which is home to the ride sharing company’s largest European market. Last year, Uber had to fight to retain its license to operate in London.
CHANDIGARH : With Punjab being among the four states where coronavirus infections have seen a sudden surge in the past few days, the officials attribute it to lowering of guard by the people.
Also, as per the health department, focused sampling of teachers and students after reopening of schools has added to the number of infections in the state.
Dr Rajesh Bhaskar, Punjab’s nodal officer for Covid-19, said as people have lowered their guard against the virus and the use of masks has reduced drastically, the daily cases are increasing. As per health department figures, even since focused testing of teachers was undertaken after schools were opened by the state government, more than 55 have turned out to be Covid positive in the past two weeks.
The figures suggest that as many as 275 school students were also found infected in this period.
In Shaheed Bhagat Singh (SBS) Nagar, earlier known as Nawanshahr, 23 teachers and 189 students have been detected positive in this duration of testing, becoming the major reason behind the surge in the virus cases in the district, health officials said. With 495 positive cases so far, the district now has highest number of active cases in Punjab, followed by 368 in Ludhiana and 367 in SAS Nagar. As of Friday morning, the state’s active cases stood at 2,642.
Notably, when Covid-19 struck the country, SBS Nagar had become one of the first hotspots. Later, however, the district led by example and maintained a significantly less caseload throughout the lockdown period. But once again, it is back in focus due to the sudden surge in infections. “Our cases in general sampling have not increased. Assessment shows that a sudden rise has come due to the detection of the virus in teachers which has further spread to the students and their family members,” said Dr Bhaskar. “We are also sending a few samples for genome testing to a Pune lab to check for the possibility of another virus strain,” said the nodal officer.
The department analysis suggests that most of the students and teachers turning out infected with the virus are mostly asymptomatic.
Meanwhile on changing school timings, education minister Vijay Inder Singla said parents firmly supported the decisions of Punjab government on reopening of schools.
How cases are rising in Punjab
The number of daily infections has increased in the state in the past few days with figures suggesting maximum 341 cases added on February 17, highest single-day spike in the past month. State’s seven-day average, which was found to be 181 on January 27, has increased to 260 on February 18.There is no let-up in the state’s death toll too as Punjab continues to have the highest case fatality rate (CFR) in the country at 3.2%.
385 Covid cases
The total number of Covid-19 cases in Punjab mounted to 1,77,759 on Friday with 385 fresh infections while the death toll climbed to 5,740 as eight more people succumbed to the virus.