Having skilfully swerved a similar push for legal recognition in its home state of California, Uber has now been forced to reclassify its drivers as ‘workers’ in the UK and offer the various protections that comes with that. That means a minimum wage, holiday pay and a pension.
The UK Supreme Court decision has upended its business model but the legal recognition of Uber drivers as ‘workers’ is not the same as ’employees’
Although historic, the changes may not lead to considerably higher earnings for drivers, due to various caveats, or force Uber and other ride sharing services to follow suit in other countries.
Still, if it pays retrospective benefits, it could cost Uber about $400 million.
