Employee Benefits poll: Under half (46%) of respondents feel that Uber drivers and Deliveroo riders should be treated equally in terms of access to employment rights, such as receiving holiday pay and the national minimum wage.
A straw poll of www.employeebenefits.co.uk readers, which received 52 responses, also found that 31% are not sure whether Uber drivers and Deliveroo riders should be treated equally as more clarity on the issue is needed, compared to 23% who think that Uber drivers and Deliveroo riders do not need to be treated equally in terms of employment rights.
Earlier this month, independent body The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) ruled that motorbike and bicycle riders at online food ordering and delivery organisation Deliveroo are self-employed, and are therefore not entitled to be represented by a trade union, receive holiday pay, or be paid the national minimum wage.
The case, which was brought by the trade union Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) against RooFoods, the owners of Deliveroo, involved assessing the employment status of riders who work for Deliveroo after the food delivery organisation refused IWGB’s request for recognition to represent riders.
In comparison, The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) upheld the existing ruling against taxi organisation Uber in November 2017, confirming that its drivers are employed as workers rather than self-employed contractors and are entitled to employment rights.
The long-standing case of Aslam and Farra v Uber, which was brought by the GMB trade union on behalf of 25 drivers, was originally heard in a preliminary hearing at the London Central Employment Tribunal in July 2016. The decision, which was published in October 2016, found that the drivers were employed as workers within the meaning of the Employment Rights Act, National Minimum Wage Act, and the working time regulations. The tribunal found that the claimants were engaged in unmeasured work for the purposes of the National Minimum Wage Regulations, and that their working time should be calculated in accordance with the working time regulations.
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