Uber ruling to have huge impact on ‘gig economy’

UNION bosses say a Supreme Court ruling that Uber drivers should be classed as workers will have “enormous implications” and affect people throughout the gig economy.

Supreme Court justices ruled on the latest round of a long-running fight between Uber operating companies and drivers yesterday.

Uber operating companies, who said drivers were contractors not workers, appealed to the Supreme Court after losing three earlier rounds of the fight. But judges unanimously dismissed Uber’s appeal.

Lawyers say the ruling means Uber drivers will be entitled to workers’ rights, such as holiday pay.

A law firm, Leigh Day, enlisted by the GMB union to represent Uber drivers says drivers will be entitled to compensation for lost pay.

But union officials said the ruling had implications beyond Uber.

Scottish TUC general secretary Roz Foyer said: “This ruling has enormous implications for employment law which go beyond Uber to the wider gig economy.”

The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed said there was a “glaring need for clarity” – and urged the Government to introduce a statutory definition of self-employment.

“The very fact this case has come to the UK’s Supreme Court shows the UK’s employment law is not working,” said the association’s director of policy, Andy Chamberlain. “There is a glaring need for clarity in this area, to clear the confusion in the gig economy.

He added: “The gig economy is enormously complex, including many people who are legitimately self-employed and many others who really, based on their working circumstances, should be classed as workers. It is a patchwork of grey areas between employment and selfemployment: the only way to resolve this tangle is to clarify employment status in UK law.”

Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC, said: “Unions will continue to expose nasty schemes that try and cheat workers out of the minimum wage and holiday pay, but we also need the government to step up to the plate. Ministers must use the much-delayed employment bill to reform the law around worker status.

“Everyone should qualify for employment rights unless an employer can prove they are genuinely self-employed.”

A GMB spokesman said officials would now consult with Uber driver members over forthcoming compensation claims.

Mick Rix, GMB national officer, said: “This has been a gruelling fouryear legal battle for our members but it’s ended in a historic win.

“The Supreme Court has upheld the decision of three previous courts, backing up what GMB has said all along; Uber drivers are workers and entitled to breaks, holiday pay and minimum wage.

“Uber must now stop wasting time and money pursuing lost legal causes and do what’s right by the drivers who prop up its empire.”

An employment tribunal ruled in 2016 that Uber drivers were workers, and were entitled to workers’ rights. That ruling was upheld by an employment appeal tribunal, and by Court of Appeal judges.

THE Oasis centre in Swindon is so old, and in need of such repair, real doubt has been put on its ever reopening.

And if it does, the boss of the leisure specialist which was running it until November, said it could come back as a visitor attraction rather than a community use centre – and cost users much more.

John Watkins a director of Seven Capital, which owns the lease of the centre, and Mark Sesnan, the chief executive of GLL, the company which ran the centre until November, told Swindon councillors it was not viable.

Mr Sesnan told a task group set up by the council’s scrutiny committee to investigate the centre’s closure: “Covid-19 has accelerated the situation, but if we weren’t having this discussion now, then we’d be having it in 2022 whatever happened, I think.”

Mr Watkins said Seven Capital was in discussions with other operators about opening the centre: “We have had other interest but that’s at a general level, and we are reviewing all options at the moment.”

Both men said the age and design of the building itself was a significant barrier to successfully reopening the centre.

Mr Watkins said: “The energy consumption and staffing requirement of the pool are too high for viability. GLL were running it at a loss.”