Uber drivers say they feel “cheated” and “cheated” after realizing they’ve been paid up to 10 times less compensation for lost vacation pay than those who hired lawyers to take action against the company.
Drivers won the payments after the Supreme Court upheld a landmark labor court in February last year that ruled that Uber drivers should be classified as workers with access to the minimum wage and paid vacation.
Uber created an online portal in March 2021 through which it said drivers could claim compensation for holiday pay directly “without lengthy legal proceedings”.
It is understood that 54,000 claimants, an estimated 80% of all eligible Uber drivers, have so far received payments through the portal, averaging £ 2,700.
The portal, which was open until July 2021, promised compensation for “historic trips” to drivers it deemed eligible, and those who applied directly also had the advantage of offering cash in a few weeks.
Meanwhile, at least 15,000 chose to settle through lawyers, and had to wait about a year for the payments to be agreed and granted.
Now that most drivers have been informed of their payments, comparisons can be made. It has been found that those who settled through their lawyers received many times more, in some cases more than 10 times the average of those who used the portal.
The Guardian has seen details of a legal settlement payment amounting to more than £ 45,000, following legal fees of more than £ 10,000. It is understood that a driver decided to reject an offer of about £ 3,000 through the Uber portal and continued with his legal claim, through which he received about £ 30,000. Negotiations were led by law firms Leigh Day and Keller Lenkner, with a number of other firms joining the litigation.
The American tech giant is facing unprecedented international scrutiny this week following the release of Uber files, a cache of thousands of confidential documents leaked to the Guardian. News of the settlements arose separately and is not part of the leak.
Drivers fear they will not be able to challenge the offers they received, as anyone who accepted Uber’s direct offer had to sign documentation in which they pledged not to initiate further legal action on the matter.
A driver who accepted just under £ 4,000 last year, after working about 60 hours a week for Uber for most of the seven years he was a regular on the app, said: “Everyone is very angry about it.
“It was during the pandemic. There was no money coming in and I thought this was the best we would get. They tricked us and told us this was the best we would get and that it had been calculated correctly and talking to a lawyer would not do any difference, except that they would discount us the commission.
“Drivers have been clearly employed. They didn’t know it and Uber took advantage of Uber drivers because they didn’t know it. [understand] the Law. Everyone is angry. “
Another driver who has worked for Uber for more than eight years said he had received just over £ 4,000 in compensation after applying directly through the company’s portal, but had spoken to a fellow who had worked fewer years but with an average of similar hours who received over £ 35,000. , after the fees as a result of joining one of the legal actions.
The driver said he had decided to leave Uber after discovering the little compensation he had received in comparison. “We are loyal people and that’s how we are treated after these years of hard work.
“[The payout] it could have been a substantial amount, an amount that changed my life. If the difference was just £ 1,000 or £ 3,000, then I would say we don’t even talk about it, but it’s a big amount and a big difference. “
It is understood that the difference between the indemnities agreed through the portal and those agreed through legal agreements is based on how the holiday pay has been calculated, largely the cut-off period for late payments, but also the level of eligible expenses for each driver and working time. was calculated.
The Uber agreement was only traced back two years, while it is understood that some legal agreements refer to much longer periods.
It is understood that Uber limited payments to two years due to a labor regulation introduced in 2015 to limit the impact of large backlog claims on companies.
However, the law on this point is unclear and it is understood that lawyers for Uber drivers argued that the sentence did not necessarily apply, which allowed the claims to go back even further.
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Uber declined to comment on the level of compensation per driver, but it is understood that each payment depended on the individual circumstances of the drivers.
Compensation was calculated taking into account the two-year period prior to March 2021 and based on 12.07% of your weekly income. Net earnings were calculated before expenses using the HMRC mileage bonus of 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles driven each year and 25p per mile for all subsequent miles each year.
Separately, if a driver was paid a national minimum wage during any work week, he was increased compensation to make sure he was paid at least that amount.