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Uber Contract Described As "Gibberish" and Leave To Appeal Is Granted

on Friday, 21 April 2017.

The Work and Pensions Committee's inquiry into self-employment and the gig economy has hit the headlines this week due to comments made by its Chair, Frank Field MP...

...about the contracts used by Uber, Hermes, Deliveroo and Amazon in their dealings with their workers.

Mr Field said, "Quite frankly the Uber contract is gibberish... their contract is almost unintelligible. And it, like Deliveroo's, contains this egregious clause about not challenging the official designation of "self-employed", when the way they work looks in most ways an awful lot like being employed."

Mr Field's comments are reminiscent of those made by the Employment Tribunal judge who held last October that drivers who used Uber’s phone app to pick up fares were not self-employed. The judge in that case said, "The notion that Uber in London is a mosaic of 30,000 small businesses linked by a common ‘platform’ is to our minds faintly ridiculous ... Drivers do not and cannot negotiate with passengers ... They are offered and accept trips strictly on Uber’s terms."

In a rare bit of good news for Uber, it has been given permission this week to proceed with an appeal against that judgment in the Employment Appeal Tribunal. It will be very interesting to see whether the EAT will be willing to go against the general trend establishing worker status in the cases involving Uber, CitySprint, Excel and Pimlico Plumbers (the latter of which has just had permission to appeal against the Employment Tribunal's decision refused) as well as the clear concerns of the Work and Pensions Committee.

Perhaps the recent letter from Uber's UK Head of Public Policy to Mr Field, which can be read here, may give some indication of the kinds of arguments Uber will attempt to deploy in its appeal, including that in reality Uber's drivers control how and when they work and may even work for other businesses (including direct competitors such as other app-based taxi platforms) when logged in to Uber's app.


For further information please contact Bob Fahy in the Employment Law Team on 01923 919 302.