Uber drivers in the UK are employees, court rules

Uber should treat its drivers in the U.K. as employees, paying them at least minimum wage from the moment they are available to work until they log off and providing them with paid time off, a London employment tribunal has ruled. The drivers and Uber must now make proposals to the judge how they will comply with the ruling, made following a preliminary hearing. What they agree will have consequences for Uber and businesses like it across the U.K. It could push costs up, increasing Uber's incentive to develop its own self-driving car. Drivers and other on-demand workers around the world are finding that the flexibility to choose their working hours touted by Uber and companies like it comes with a high cost: The absence of other benefits often taken for granted in other jobs. For the two test claimants in the London case, former Uber drivers Yaseen Aslam and James Farrar, those missing benefits included paid time off for vacations or illness, and a guaranteed minimum hourly income during periods when they made themselves available to Uber yet were not offered paid work.