Map
Case

Uber v Aslam: UK Supreme Court on driver worker status (2021)

On 19 February 2021 the UK Supreme Court dismissed Uber's appeal in Uber BV v Aslam ([2021] UKSC 5), holding that the tribunal was entitled to find that drivers worked for Uber London under workers' contracts, with rights to the minimum wage and paid annual leave, not as independent contractors (court judgement). It upheld the finding that drivers were working whenever the app was on, in their licensed territory and ready to accept trips, and noted an 80% acceptance threshold backed by ten-minute log-offs.

Industry
Ride-hailing
Frameworks applied
Platform business modelMitigating vs organisational strategies for platforms
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Frameworks applied

This case is read through the frameworks below.

  • Platform business modelWhen a business owner plans a platform linking buyers and sellers, how can they attract both sides to solve the chicken-and-egg problem and trigger network effects?
  • Mitigating vs organisational strategies for platformsWhen policymakers want digital platforms to treat workers and users more fairly, should they regulate platforms as owned today or change ownership and governance itself?

Sources

References

Listed A–Z by author surname, Harvard style. A source with a DOI links to https://doi.org/…; one without links to its page or says plainly that it has no DOI.

  1. UK Supreme Court (2021) Uber BV and others (Appellants) v Aslam and others (Respondents) [2021] UKSC 5. UK Supreme Court judgments.No DOIsupremecourt.ukSource page