A similar ruling forced Uber to award employment protections to it’s workforce of around 70,000 drivers and while this will impact workers primarily, some have warned there will be long-term ramifications for consumers.
Following the Uber ruling, Rom Moyes, a Partner in the employment team at Blacks solicitors, reflected on what may be on the horizon: “I think it is fair to say Uber was backed into a corner or, to use a motoring term, were at a ‘dead-end’.
“They had nowhere else to go, and their suggestion that the decision to find worker status should only apply to that particular group of drivers was unsustainable and to be honest, not credible.
“Continuing with the motoring theme, the direction of travel in these types of cases has tended to find worker status and there is no doubt about it, the public nature of the decision will cause other businesses to question their models, coupled with other changes in the law around IR35.
