A driver uses the Uber app to drop off a passenger in London.
Chris J. Ratcliffe | Bloomberg via Getty Images
LONDON – Uber lost a crucial legal battle in the UK on Friday, when the country’s Supreme Court upheld the decision that its drivers should be classified as workers rather than independent contractors.
The Supreme Court voted unanimously to dismiss Uber’s appeal against the decision.
The verdict ends a nearly five-year legal battle between Uber and a group of ex-drivers who claim to be workers entitled to labor rights such as minimum wage, vacation and rest.
In 2016, a labor court ruled in favor of a group of ex-Uber drivers, led by Yaseen Aslam and James Farrar, who claimed that they were workers hired by Uber and therefore were entitled to certain labor protections.
Uber insists that its drivers are self-employed and that it acts more like an “agency” that connects them to passengers through an app. Uber wants to keep its drivers’ legal classification as independent contractors unchanged, arguing that drivers prefer this show model because it is more flexible – it also benefits Uber from a cost standpoint.
The UK case echoes Uber’s legal struggle with Californian regulators, who last year tried to reclassify drivers from Uber and other hitchhiking services like Lyft as employees to give them more job protection.
But voters supported an electoral measure called Proposal 22, which exempted Uber and other giant platforms from reclassifying drivers as employees.
The Supreme Court decision potentially puts Uber’s business model in the UK at risk. The company will now have to return to the labor court to determine the compensation for the drivers involved in the case. It can also face claims from thousands of other drivers in the country.
It also has important implications for Britain’s gigabyte economy, which is expected to have a workforce of around 5.5 million people. Other companies that operate a model similar to Uber include Bolt, Ola and Deliveroo.