Not sure about this tbh.. will need to see the actual ruling and some analysis of how it will now work in practice.
On the face of it it seems silly, I don’t see why people can’t chose to be self employed and work these jobs - there is an element of self selection there, if you start implementing a floor (min wage, holidays etc) then the companies perhaps either need to be brutal with ditching drivers quicker or the more efficient drivers perhaps end up with diminished returns to fund the mediocre/poor performing drivers.
Also hourly pay/min war doesn’t necessarily work with these apps - some regular private hire drivers use them in between jobs, some drivers switch between uber and competitors, turn both apps on towards the end of a job and see whether they pick up a job after that etc.. Will this ruling remove part of the flexibility?
it also potentially undermines the efficiency of the service (similar to the potential for taking away from successful drivers) - uber copes with high demand by using surge pricing, this incentivises drivers to move to an area where there is currently higher demand for rides but if a floor is introduced then such an incentive is obviously diminished.
Perhaps they can counter the effect of such a floor by raising prices in general, that would perhaps reduce the customer base and they’d need to either ditch drivers or again the top performing drivers will take a hit.
The whole thing can just turn into an exercise in reducing the variance of driver payouts - poor performing drivers get a boost and top performers get penalised, welcome to mediocrity.
It’s not like anyone is forced to be an uber driver - they could work for a local small minicab firm or the likes of Addison Lee or they could study for the knowledge exam and become black can drivers.
The whole point of uber was to facilitate self employment, choose your own hours etc.. I’ve had an uber eats delivery from a couple before, young bloke just driving around with his girlfriend, presumably just earning a bit more income. As a side hustle perhaps they’re not fussed about chasing as many jobs as possible, they can just chill and do their deliveries/drive about etc.. while earning a bit. As employees would they instead end up with targets fir number of jobs done or the threat of being sacked if not hitting certain numbers etc..?
Is it really going to be an improvement if a bunch of drivers now have min targets to hit, some extra stress and potentially some get fired.
It seems as a society we’ve decided pay per hour is the only model we should use for compensating people (at least at the lower end) and are very anti variable rewards or just letting people choose their own ways of working (working multiple jobs/using multiple apps or just chilling and casually doing jobs while driving round with the gf etc..) that don’t fit with an hourly rate.