Greater than 1,600 UK drivers working for the ride-hailing app Bolt are looking for compensation for missed vacation and minimal wage funds as they argue they’ve been wrongly classed as self-employed contractors.
Legal professionals for the drivers have written to the government-backed office conciliation service Acas, within the first stage of lodging the declare towards Bolt.
Final 12 months the supreme court docket endorsed an employment tribunal ruling that drivers for the rival service Uber ought to be classed as staff, with entry to the minimal wage, paid holidays and pensions. Uber has since paid out greater than £150m in compensation to its drivers over missed pay and has altered the way in which it rewards drivers.
One London-based Bolt driver, mentioned: “Getting staff’ rights would make a giant distinction to me, particularly with the value of every part going up. It’s nerve-racking worrying about if I’ll earn sufficient cash to pay all my payments every month.”
Bolt, which is predicated in Estonia, works with 65,000 drivers within the UK throughout 19 cities together with London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Alex Marshall, president of the IWGB (Unbiased Employees’ union of Nice Britain), which is backing the declare, mentioned staff have been “standing as much as unfair employment practices that depart them with no safe revenue”.
He mentioned: “Drivers working for Bolt worth flexibility, however they’re at the moment denied primary rights and protections. Like Uber has performed up to now, Bolt makes use of the wrongful misclassification of staff as an excuse for forcing drivers to work with out vacation pay, assured minimal earnings and different rights.”
Charlotte Pettman, a solicitor within the employment crew at Leigh Day which is heading the declare, mentioned: “Leigh Day is assured that Bolt drivers ought to be given employee standing and the rights this affords. Already, the supreme court docket, the best court docket within the UK, has dominated in favour of Uber drivers of their staff’ rights claims.
“This ought to be a transparent warning to different firms, with related enterprise fashions, that they can’t proceed to short-change their drivers.”
Bolt mentioned the corporate “complies with relevant legal guidelines and laws particular to our enterprise”. A spokesperson mentioned: “The supreme court docket ruling associated to Uber’s working mannequin in 2016 which is completely different to our personal.
“Bolt’s working mannequin means drivers obtain larger earnings per journey and profit from complete flexibility. Our intensive driver engagement reveals again and again this mannequin is what the overwhelming majority of our drivers need.
“We function in a extremely aggressive market to draw drivers so it’s in our pursuits to function a mannequin that works finest for them; if not, they may go elsewhere.”