James Farrar, the trailblazer who’s infamous case brought about worker rights for Uber drivers, has refused to accept a settlement and sign a non-disclosure agreement following the Supreme Court decision. Instead he wants a court to define exactly how Uber should define and calculate a minimum wage for its drivers.
“There are 100,000 Uber drivers still being cheated out of their full statutory rights by Uber and private settlements prevent the courts ever reaching a proper determination,” Mr Farrar, general secretary of the App Drivers & Couriers Union (ADCU), told The Evening Standard. “I feel like I would have wasted my time and failed our campaign if I did not push on to a final court judgment that could be used to protect all Uber drivers in future.”
According to Farrar, Uber’s concept of a minimum wage falls short because it only pays for the journey from the moment the Uber driver picks up a passenger, until the moment the passenger gets out of the car.
Uber disputes Mr Farrar’s views on how driver minimum wage should be calculated on the basis that drivers could be logged into multiple apps simultaneously and therefore receive multiple minimum wages, they might not even be in their car ready to make a trip, and they could be choosing to reject all trips whilst doing something else.
However Farrar concluded: “Uber has unilaterally decided not to pay drivers for waiting time and has failed to adjust their own minimum wage calculations to account for inflation and the significant extra costs in shifting to electric vehicles.”
