9 Dec 2016

Uber treats its drivers as Victorian-style “sweated labour”, with some taking home less than the minimum wage, according to a report into its working conditions based on the testimony of dozens of drivers. Drivers at the taxi-hailing app company reported feeling forced to work extremely long hours, sometimes more than 70 a week, just to make a basic living, said Frank Field, the Labour MP and chair of the work and pensions committee. Field received testimony from 83 drivers who said they often took home significantly less than the “national living wage” after paying their running costs. The report says they described conditions that matched the Victorian definition of sweated labour: “when earnings were barely sufficient to sustain existence, hours of labour were such as to make lives of workers periods of ceaseless toil; and conditions were injurious to the health of workers and dangerous to the public”...Uber said it did not believe the cases in Field’s report were representative. It said recent polling had shown that nine in 10 of its drivers were satisfied with the money they made and enjoyed being able to balance work and family life...Field is calling for TfL and the Department for Transport to require Uber to banish “sweated labour” from its working practices before renewing its licence to operate when it ends in 2017. He also wants the government to reform employment law so that companies in the gig economy are required to give workers basic protections, including the national living wage.