An employment tribunal judgment has seen Bolt join the growing list of employers, including Uber and Addison Lee, to have tried and failed to argue that the people it engages are genuinely self-employed rather than workers. The decision will reportedly cost Bolt £200 million, because it will now see over 100,000 of its drivers receive essential rights, protections and benefits under UK employment law, including eligibility for the national minimum wage and statutory holiday pay.
Each case regarding worker status is decided on its own set of unique facts at the employment tribunal, and given that the sums involved are often significant, as is seen in this case, it is not surprising that this issue has been tested in court on numerous occasions. For example, the tribunal in this case aligned with the Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling on the working status of Uber drivers, specifying that that drivers must be compensated for all time logged into the app.
However, it is hard for gig economy employers to ignore the notable trend for employment tribunals to find in favour of the individuals. This highlights the difficulties in devising a working relationship with the individuals that is genuinely self-employed, but which also works from a commercial perspective.
With major changes expected to be introduced in employment law over the next few years, the legal landscape in this area is only likely to become more challenging. This is particularly as Labour has confirmed its commitment to reforming the law in this area, with a move towards a single worker status for all but the genuinely self-employed. This will make the differentiation between worker and self-employed status even more significant and will cause a headache for many organisations which operate a gig economy model.
What remains to be seen, however, is how the line will be drawn in practice, and whether clarity can be brought to this complex issue, which will require a balancing act of maintaining an attractive business model for the organisations, while also ensuring their policies and working practices do not breach employment law.
Keely Rushmore is an employment partner at Keystone Law
