UK based App Drivers & Couriers Union has challenged for the worker’s rights in the private taxi hire sector in an Employment Tribunal case.
The case will involve Northampton based regional operator Bounds Taxis. The union has been accusing Bonus of using same misclassification model as Uber.
The accusation involved workers for Bounds Taxis are denied from getting right for minimum wage, holiday pay and rest breaks.
As a part of argument, two Northampton based members from the ADCU, Shafqat Shah and Samuel Adjei will be appearing at the Employment Tribunal in Watford. They will need to argue for their right to be recognized as workers with the right to the minimum wage, paid rest breaks and protection from racial discrimination.
Yaseen Aslam ADCU President said, “Throughout the UK we see that almost the entire private hire industry has copied Uber’s model of worker exploitation by misclassifying workers so to deny them their statutory rights. It is unfortunate that Bounds Taxis has not been willing to meet its legal obligations as an employer and that neither the government nor Northampton City Council has stepped in to insist they do so. The ADCU will not hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to clean up the trade.”
UK Court of Appeal rules out that taxi and courier firm Addison Lee won’t be fighting for the decision by the Employment Tribunal. The fight was about drivers for taxi and courier firm are entitled to workers rights. This means, drivers of the firm will keep their worker status.
This decision came after a landmark UK Supreme Court ruling where it decided Uber’s drivers should fall under worker category, but not as self-employed.
The Staffing Industry Analysts stated, “This claim was made nearly 2 years ago and certainly didn’t launch off the back of the recent Uber case in the Supreme Court. Our business operates very differently to both Uber and Addison Lee, at a fundamental level and it is interesting to note that we are quite unique in our approach to defending our position, in that we require full disclosure of claimant’s tax returns for the claim period. This can yield quite interesting results, as the honesty and integrity of all parties in the case is of significant importance,” the company stated.