{"id":181006,"date":"2016-10-29T22:05:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-30T03:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2016\/10\/29\/uber-loses-another-one\/"},"modified":"2016-10-29T22:05:00","modified_gmt":"2016-10-30T03:05:00","slug":"uber-loses-another-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2016\/10\/29\/uber-loses-another-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber Loses Another One"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An employment tribunal in London <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2016\/oct\/28\/uber-uk-tribunal-self-employed-status\">has ruled that its drivers are employees, not independent contractors<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">Uber drivers are not self-employed and should be paid the \u201cnational living wage\u201d, a UK employment court has ruled in a landmark case which could affect tens of thousands of workers in the gig economy.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">The ride-hailing app could now be open to claims from all of its 40,000 drivers in the UK, who are currently not entitled to holiday pay, pensions or other workers\u2019 rights. Uber immediately said it would appeal against the ruling.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\">Uber ruling is a massive boost for a fairer jobs market<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\">Read more<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Employment experts said other firms with large self-employed workforces could now face scrutiny of their working practices and the UK\u2019s biggest union, Unite, announced it was setting up a new unit to pursue cases of bogus self-employment.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">Research by Citizens Advice has suggested that as many as 460,000 people could be falsely classified as self-employed, costing up to \u00a3314m a year in lost tax and employer national insurance contributions. Four courier firms are already facing legal action from cyclists who want similar recognition as staff employees and the rights that go with that status, while delivery firm Hermes is under investigation by HM Revenue &amp; Customs.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">The Uber ruling could force a rethink of the gig economy business model, where companies use apps and the internet to match customers with workers. The firms do not employ the workers, but take commission from their earnings, and many have become huge global enterprises. Uber now operates around the world, with the company valued at more than \u00a350bn.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"color: blue;\">The judges were scathing about Uber\u2019s arguments, however, accusing the firm of \u201cresorting in its documentation to fictions, twisted language and even brand new terminology\u201d and even quoting Hamlet to suggest that the group\u2019s UK boss was protesting too much about its position. <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Uber&#8217;s business model has been to create a business where all the risks and all the costs, are laid on their employees and their customers in defiance of the law, regulation, and decency.<\/p>\n<p>It is a fundamentally immoral and abusive world view gleaned from the writings of the psychopath Ayn Rand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An employment tribunal in London has ruled that its drivers are employees, not independent contractors: Uber drivers are not self-employed and should be paid the \u201cnational living wage\u201d, a UK employment court has ruled in a landmark case which could affect tens of thousands of workers in the gig economy.The ride-hailing app could now be &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[775,774,766,833,814],"class_list":["post-181006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-business","tag-employment","tag-evil","tag-justice","tag-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181006"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}