Uber employment tribunal: 'They will probably lose,' says lawyer

Uber will probably lose its employment rights tribunal because it will be unable to prove its workers are self-employed.

That's the view of employment lawyer Philip Landau, who spoke to Julia Hartley-Brewer about Uber's challenge to a ruling which says its drivers cannot be classified as self-employed and must receive employment benefits.

Uber is arguing doing that, by classing workers as salaried employeed, they will be denied the "personal flexibility they value."

But Landau said this challenge was likely to fail, telling Julia Hartley-Brewer: "My bet is that unless the lawyers for Uber can convince the tribunal that this is something which doesn't fall within a normal category, like employees, Uber's employees will be able to get away with it. They will be able to show that they’re workers on balance."

He explained "if your employer has total control and there’s an obligation for you to work then you are more likely to be an employee" whereas "workers and self-employed people are more likely to have a casual arrangement.

"It’s all about control and the obligation on the employee to actually work", he added, and at Uber "there is this creeping introduction of all the elements that you would normally see in an employment contract" which is why the initial tribunal ruled that drivers could no longer qualify as self-employed.

He added: "One of the big things that the workers are saying is that they don't have a customer base, they don’t take the bookings themselves. They’re rated, as you say, they don’t have control. Uber retain control of what they do."

Listen to the full interview above