Tarun Barkskar and Anushree Chandra
The UK Supreme Court recently delivered a landmark judgement in the case of Uber BV and Ors. v Aslam and Ors., deciding in favour of Uber car drivers, and rejecting the stand of Uber London of being a mere independent contractor and not the employer. The Court ordered that as the drivers are now under the ambit of “workers”, they are entitled to avail the benefits and rights that the labour laws of UK grant to workers. The Court’s decision was based on the reasoning that the amount of control Uber enjoys over the work of drivers registered with it is enough to determine that the drivers should be considered as workers. The Court observed that drivers are on the job as soon as they log in to the Uber application and not just when they are making the journey with the passenger.
This landmark ruling by the UK Supreme Court should be taken as a guiding light to decide the rights of people involved in similar employment. India has already started working to ensure protection of interests and rights of gig economy workers; this is evident from the fact that the government in the union budget mandated that the law on minimum wages will include workers of all categories. In India, the Delhi Commercial Driver Union approached the Delhi High Court in the year 2017 with the claim that they are denied benefits like compensation in case of any accidents. The UK Supreme Court decision can be an impetus for the government to formulate laws to protect the interests of the workers associated with such platforms. It will ensure that companies do not take undue advantage of different terms of service than the traditional ones to exploit their employees and workers. The judgement surely brightens the outlook for labour rights in India.
Tarun Barkskar and Anushree Chandra, CLL.
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