Uber Supreme Court Decision highlights need for further review of employment status

Following the ruling by the Supreme Court that Uber drivers should be classed as ‘workers’ and not independent contractors, Tania Bowers, Legal Counsel for The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) said:

“While the position on employment rights for workers is now clearer, in that the ruling states drivers are entitled to be paid at least the National Minimum Wage for the time they are available for work and not just when they are driving passengers, there is still the anomaly of a different employment status for tax purposes and there is no definition of a worker status for tax.  One’s status is either employed or self-employed leading to the artificial construct of ‘deemed employee’. We have long argued that that an overhaul of employment status would remove the current differentiation in law between employment status for rights and taxation, and despite today’s judgement an overhaul of employment status is long overdue.”