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Alan Bogg - 20th July 2020
In the coming days, labour lawyers from around the world will be tuning in to watch the arguments in Uber v Aslam. In terms of the wider ramifications of the reasoning in Heller, what are the prospects for the ‘contractual’ and the ‘constitutional’ approaches in Aslam? As already noted, the wider doctrine of unconscionability in […]
Deirdre McCann - 27th April 2020
A few weeks before the lockdown, one of the most important UK labour law cases of the last decade was heard by the Supreme Court. Royal Mencap Society v Tomlinson Blake has not attracted the attention paid to the Uber litigation, also to reach the Supreme Court later this year. Yet Mencap will have significant […]
Aradhana Cherupara Vadekkethil - 15th March 2020
In August 2019, couriers working for Foodora Inc. (Foodora), a web services company that provides an online marketplace platform connecting consumers to restaurants, voted on whether to join the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), with the Board electing to seal the ballot box pending clarification of the couriers’ status. Unlike many other jurisdictions in […]
Aradhana Cherupara Vadekkethil - 15th March 2020
On 4th of March 2020, French Court of Cassation (the country’s highest court for civil matters) in a landmark ruling confirmed the Paris Court of Appeal’s finding that Uber drivers are employees. Mr. X had petitioned the industrial tribunal with a request to reclassify his contractual relations with Uber as an employment contract, and had […]
Fairuz Mullagee - 5th November 2019
In a recent South African High Court judgement, the court held the failure to cover domestic workers under Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) to be unconstitutional. This finding could be a springboard for extending protection for occupational injuries to all precarious workers, including platform workers. Section 23 of the South African Constitution […]
Catherine Fisk - 8th July 2019
California, many other states, and the United States government, have laws imposing minimum standards of employment (such as wages and hours), limited financial benefits for workers who become unemployed or are injured in the course of employment, and benefits for employees after retirement age or who become unable to work because of disability. Most of […]
Darcy du Toit - 14th January 2019
The judgment of the English Court of Appeal in Uber B.V. & others v Aslam & others (Case No: A2/2017/3467; 19 December 2018) has been hailed as a victory for workers. Uber’s business model, in common with many digital platforms, depends on classifying its drivers as independent contractors, who do not enjoy the rights of […]
Esteban Russell and Leornado Orlanski - 13th September 2018
Last year, a local court of Buenos Aires ordered the blockage of Uber’s app and website nationwide in Argentina. The decision stated that Uber had to be blocked (and banned) since its drivers occupied public spaces to engage in commercial activity, and that was a misdemeanor. On June 18 this year, the decision was overturned […]