LONDON UBERK TRIBUNAL

Uber driver earned less than minimum wage, tribunal told

James Farrar claims that one month in 2015 he earned little more than £5 an hour and feared repercussions if he cancelled a job

An Uber driver who says he earned less than the minimum wage has told a tribunal about the “tremendous pressure” he was put under to work long hours and accept jobs, and the “repercussions” he faced from the company if he cancelled a pick-up.

James Farrar, a driver with the firm since December 2014, said some months he had earned little more than £5 an hour and that “Uber control me very, very carefully”.

He was speaking at an employment tribunal in London at which a group of Uber drivers are arguing they should be recognised officially as workers at the company. Lawyers working for the 19-member group are arguing that the terms and conditions of their work with the company mean they are not technically self-employed and should be entitled to a range of benefits that they currently do not receive.

The taxi-hailing app has about 30,000 drivers in London, all of whom are designated as self-employed “partner drivers”.

Farrar said: “Working for Uber is my job. I do not run a private hire business. I do not have a service company. I do not advertise ‘driving services’, I have no one working for me, I have only one car licensed with TfL for private hire work and I only drive for Uber.

“I understand that Uber is arguing that I run my own business and that Uber is a customer of that business, but this in no way reflects the daily reality of my job. I am not sure what service Uber provides to me.”

In his witness statement, Farrar said drivers receive 80% of fares paid by passengers to Uber, with the rest going to the company as commission. “In reality, they pay me for the work I have done and keep 20% of what they have charged the customer … I have no ability to negotiate a different deal – I either have to accept Uber’s terms or not work as an Uber driver.”

The case is being monitored by unions and lawyers representing other workers who are designated as self-employed by firms and as a result do not qualify for the rights given to staff. The growth of the so-called gig economy means thousands of workers are in this position, and on Tuesday the TUC called for a change in the law to protect them.

Annie Powell, a solicitor at law firm Leigh Day, which is representing the drivers, said Uber’s argument was that it was a technology company and that it did not provide a transport service to customers – it merely put them in touch with drivers.

Uber’s lawyer, David Reade, argued that the drivers had a choice about their work – there was nothing to stop Farrar working for more than one operator at the same time, and that he was free to turn off the Uber app.

But Farrar said if he ignored more than two bookings sent on the app, he was logged out and put in a “penalty box”, where he was unable to work for 10 minutes.

Reade said this only happened if a driver missed three consecutive jobs.

Farrar said there had been times when he had had to work many more hours than he should have. On one occasion he worked 91 hours in a week. 

Farrar also accused Uber of offering customers unrealistic arrival times.

In a witness statement, Farrar said he had calculated his net earnings for August 2015, after expenses, at £5.03 an hour. However, Uber claimed that, based on the total number of hours logged into the app, he had been paid £13.77 on an average hourly basis.

Reade said Farrar had picked a month in which he had logged on to the app for the longest period of time but cancelled or not accepted the highest number of jobs, thereby reducing his hourly pay.

Farrar told the tribunal that the £5.03 an hour would have been about £3.70 an hour if it had not been for the “surge surcharge” – the higher prices Uber imposes when demand is high.

However, Farrar also said: “I like working for Uber, I want to continue working for Uber.”

The case is due to last until Tuesday, and a decision on whether Uber is acting unlawfully is unlikely to be given by the judge for several weeks.

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