“In 2018, Ali submitted a claim against Uber for unpaid holidays. Originally from Somaliland, he had been driving for Uber since 2016, a couple of years after arriving in the UK. Since then, he hadn’t had a single paid holiday, despite at times working up to 70 hours in a seven-day week. He had taken some time off though – once for a couple weeks on the doctor’s recommendation to address his (unsurprising) back pain. When he tried to get assistance from the Uber-provided insurance policy the company likes to boast about, he was told the time off wouldn’t be covered.
Despite an employment tribunal ruling as far back as 2016 that Uber drivers were entitled to basic protections such as minimum wage and paid holidays, Ali’s claim has been on hold while Uber continued to appeal the decision. Throughout the years of appeals, Uber denied these protections to its drivers. On Friday [Feb 19, 20201], however, six justices of the supreme court gave the final decision on the lead Uber case and, like the three rulings that came before it, held that Uber drivers are entitled to basic workers’ rights.”
