With the number of cases now slowly stacking up on so called ‘GIG’ economy companies, pressure is rising not only on the government to manage and review working rights in the industry but also high costs and possible business changing implications they may bring. We saw in the last twelve months a strong working rights case with Uber which they appealed mid-December but also now the English language requirements that could possibly effect 33,000 drivers.
Deliveroo have now also unhappily I suspect joined the party…
As part of their changes they are to remove a clause in their contracts that bans workers for the company from contesting their self-employed status at employment tribunals – a major issue with their model and it came about after its legality was questioned by a cross-party group of MPs.
Given in many cases their “worker” status under ERA 1996, employees have a right to certain areas of our acts and laws over other forms of self employed workers such as national minimum wage, holidays and work hour restrictions and the GIG firms have pushed back given the costs of such change could alter the whole dynamic of how Deliveroo, Uber and other GIG economy business’s function.
Its going to be very interesting to see how these cases move on through the legal system and the final position that could mean fundamental changes to their business models and employee structure going forward.
