If you drove for Uber (Not Uber Eats) in England or
Wales anytime after 1st January 2015
Zoi Bilderberg Law Practice will then progress your claim for earnings that you may be owed by Uber.
You need to be aware that in order to protect your right to challenge any offer made by Uber which you are unhappy to accept, you require a certificate from ACAS in order to take your grievance to the Tribunal Court.
You can register for free using the link below.
https://tell.acas.org.uk/notification-form-conciliate#no-back
Zoi Bilderberg are willing to handle the ACAS registration free of charge, ensuring it is correctly lodged and will provide you a certificate of registration.
If however at any time Uber make an improved offer that you are happy to accept, you can withdraw your grievance with ACAS at any time or we may do on your behalf.
On the other hand, if you are not happy to accept any offers, we can take over the ACAS registration and move to Tribunal action on your behalf to request that they compensate you for your historical earnt holiday pay.
Tribunal action will require you to instruct a legal representative, hence we can offer you one of three options:
Present Legal Expenses Insurance details against which we may claim your legal costs (Many Packaged Bank Accounts, Personal Insurances such as Home & Motor policies may include Legal Expenses cover)
Pay for your own Legal Costs for which we can provide an estimate based on your individual circumstance
Take up our DBA service (Damage Based Agreement) where we take on the financial risk of your claim and agree to litigate your grievance in exchange for a fixed percentage of monies we recover, therefore you only pay once we are successful in gaining a settlement on your behalf
Whilst Uber have advised us that all eligible drivers will receive an offer by June 2021, it is possible that offers from Uber will not fully take account of the more lucrative years of driver’s earnings, hence there is a probability this may significantly affect the value of any historical holiday pay for longer serving drivers.
Therefore we are prepared to progress claims via both ACAS and the Employment Tribunal Court to request that eligible driver’s are receive their fullest award.
Given Uber approach accounting for driver’s expenses for trip mileage only as based on HMRC mileage rates:
£0.45 for the initial 10,000 miles
£0.25 for all other miles
The majority of drivers based on this approach do appear to be earning above the National Minimum Wage, so few will see any adjustments or back payments for NMW.
Should the calculation for NMW be based on “Total Logged On Time”, this may possibly mean that some drivers may be eligible for NMW adjustments by Uber and these will be paid long with your ongoing Holiday Pay every 2 weeks.
Holiday Pay:Your Holiday Entitlement will be calculated as 12.07% of your total trip/engaged time
The payment for these accrued hours will be based on 12.07% of weekly earnings (after Uber service fee and vehicle expenses) and paid every 2 weeks, below is the calculation that determines the average driver’s weekly entitlement:
Weekly Earnings £750.00
Trip Mileage = 444
Vehicle Expenses £199.80 (444.00 x £0.45)
(£750 - £199.80 = 550.20 multiplied by 12.07%)
Uber has never paid its drivers the National Minimum Wage or Holiday Pay, or provided drivers with the rights normally given to workers, instead claiming drivers are ‘partners’.
The Employment Tribunal case in 2016 found that drivers are ‘workers’ rather than self-employed independent contractors.
The ruling was upheld by the Employment Appeal Tribunal hearing in November 2017 and the Court of Appeal hearing in December 2018. However, Uber further appealed to the Supreme Court, the highest court in the UK. Following the hearing last summer, in February 2021 the court ruled that drivers must be treated as workers rather than self-employed.
Delivering his judgement, Lord Leggatt said that the Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Uber's appeal that it was an intermediary party and stated that drivers should be considered to be working not only when driving a passenger, but whenever logged in to the app.
The court considered several elements in its judgement:
Looking at these and other factors, the court determined that drivers were in a position of subordination to Uber where the only way they could increase their earnings would be to work longer hours.
This does not mean that drivers are reclassified as Uber employees, rather they be classed as “Workers” entitling them to basic rights such as paid holidays, a minimum wage and protection against discrimination.
The case will now return to the Employment Tribunal Court for them to decide how drivers should be compensated.
Concern) Many drivers are thinking that the outcome is not relevant to them and only applies to 25 drivers.
Explanation) Uber has thrown every resource and argument they have to alter the outcome in their favour over the last 6 years, so if it was only ever about a small number of drivers they would have settled out of court along time ago.
Furthermore at the time When Uber listed its shares in the United States in 2019, its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) included a section on risks to its business.
The company said in this section that if it had to classify drivers as “Workers” it would "incur significant additional expenses" in compensating the drivers for things such as the minimum wage and overtime.
Further, any such reclassification would require us to fundamentally change our business model, and consequently have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition," it added.
Concern) Drivers feel that they will lose their flexibility to work within times that suit them.
Explanation) What is the difference between an Employee and a Worker?
Employee status:
An employee is someone who has entered into or works (or worked) under the terms of a contract of employment. The contract can be expressly agreed (in writing or orally) or implied by the nature of the relationship.
To have employee status:
Worker status:
Worker status is sometimes seen as a “half-way house” between employee and self-employed status. Workers are entitled to fewer statutory rights than employees, but do have some key legal rights, including:
The self-employed enjoy no statutory employment rights, although they may be protected by discrimination law.
Concern) Drivers fear that all trip requests will have to be taken and like an employee fulfil all presented tasks.
Explanation) This level of control by Uber could only be asserted if Drivers became employees, in that they would need to fully define your role of employment and key performance indicators for the role undertaken.
Concern) Many drivers believe that they are not classed as employees.
Explanation) The following description explaining the difference between Employees and Workers fully defines drivers as self-empl;oyed!
An employer is responsible for deducting tax and national insurance at source (PAYE) from the salary paid to employees. Self-employed individuals are responsible for paying their own tax and national insurance under self-assessment.
Concern) Drivers don’t want to claim because
Explanation) Such unjustified action by Uber would go against he very right awarded by The Supreme Court, that of protection against discrimination. Something that Uber can ill afford to do. Drivers will remain to be self-employed as outlined above as they remain responsible for their own tax affairs.
Concern) How will changes made by Uber affect drivers
Explanation) Ultimately drivers should expect Uber to realign fares and rates of commission in order to meet the demands of these changes on their business. This is something that drivers have already experienced when Uber made changes to its fares and commission structure, whereby newer drivers pay 25% as opposed 20% for older drivers on their platform. Essentially Uber is able to vary such terms moving forward and therefore drivers wishing to remain on the platform will need to consider if these changes suit them and accept any new rates.
Concern) Why isn’t their a contact number for drivers to call
Explanation) Given the nature of mass numbers of claims to ensure we weren’t swamped with calls, we have taken time to put in place technology that meets such demand. Therefore drivers can now communicate with us on our dedicated landline number 0207 183 2820 or via our mobile number 07418 310227 which can be used for both SMS and WhatsApp communications. Additionally drivers may email us at nowinnofee@zoibilderberg.com
As our claims team is prioritising its time to ensure successful registrations for drivers, we would ask all drivers to either leave us a voicemail or drop us a message via email, SMS or WhatsApp.
This way all drivers questions will be recorded against their individual contact profile in our system ensuring we respond to them with the information that addresses their concern rather than blanket messaging all drivers.
We understand, however we are simply making sure that you are paid what your worth and entitled to.
Uber can’t treat you differently to any other driver whether you decide to bring a claim or not.
We offer our litigation services on a No Win, No Fee agreement.
If your claim for National Minimum Wage and Holiday Pay is successfully awarded, we will deduct 20% + VAT from your total awarded damages.
Zoi Bilderberg Law Practice is committed to drivers retaining the highest percentage of their pay award.
If you do not win your claim then you will not be liable to pay anything (except where you have told us something untrue or otherwise misled us about your claim).
Whilst there is no guarantee, based on previous support from the Courts, we remain positive for the right outcome from The Supreme Court.
We would not invite you to register your claim if we did not think that you have a valid case.
Every drivers case will depend on criteria set by The Employment Tribunal Court.
It’s expected that your award will be based on:
Just go to https://steeringforjustice.com and complete all answers to start your claim.
Once you have registered, you will receive all necessary papers electronically which you can review and sign on your phone.
We will then progress your claim and request all necessary supporting evidence, which you can send us directly from your phone, making your claim very easy.
No we are only acting on behalf of drivers who work for Uber in England and Wales.
We are exploring options to support those drivers that have worked for Uber outside of England and Wales, so please register and we will be in touch.
If you have driven for Uber (not UberEats) after 1st January 2015, then simply go to https://steeringforjustice.com and complete all answers to register your claim.
If you have any gaps in driving for Uber for more than 3-months or have been deactivated from Uber for more than 3 months please provide full details during your registration.
These are considered separate to this claim for National Minimum Wage & Holiday Pay.
We will ask you to declare all earnings and monies paid to you from Uber in handling your claim.
Because the group of drivers claiming will be large, it is unlikely that each driver will be required to give evidence. A few of the group will likely be selected as “lead claimants”.
Should this be necessary we would talk to you first and explain what would be required.
To determine if you were paid National Minimum Wage, the Court will deduct any work related expenses from the amount Uber pays you into your bank account.
Expenses will vary for every driver depending if they rent/track the vehicle or own their vehicle and whether it is financed in some way.
Typical expenses may include however are not limited to:
To ensure we claim the maximum for you we will be asking you for evidence of your expenses which will prove to the Courts how much money you have missed out on.
Firstly we send you electronically your No Win No Fee agreement to review and sign on your phone.
Thereafter we send the necessary ID Checks document, once completed, we need to provide the following documents which require no action on your part:
Each time we request something from you to support your claim, you will be able to send us the necessary document or image directly from your phone via SMS, Email, WhatsApp and FB Messenger.
Each time you sign anything we send you on your phone it will immediately update your claim on our secure systems.
These two documents provide Zoi Bilderberg Law Practice with your consent and permission to request your data from Uber so we may best prepare and manage your claim on your behalf.
We will only contact you when it is necessary or when we have an update for you.