Live data from Hacker News

Highest French court reclassifies Uber drivers as employees

courdecassation.fr

1–10 of 602 posts

Re: Highest French court reclassifies Uber drivers as employees

#5
post #3
post #2

What now? Does this mean Uber can't afford to operate in France anymore?

How did you jump to this conclusion?

I was under the impression that the only way the Uber/Lyft business model is even remotely viable (without continuous VC subsidy) is classifying drivers as contractors, meaning they don't have to pay them minimum wage or benefits, which lets them undercut taxis.

Re: Highest French court reclassifies Uber drivers as employees

#6
post #3
post #2

What now? Does this mean Uber can't afford to operate in France anymore?

How did you jump to this conclusion?

Is there such a thing as an employee with random hours?

Isn't the whole point of an employee that there is an expectation of regular work?

Re: Highest French court reclassifies Uber drivers as employees

#8
post #5
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you jump to this conclusion?

I was under the impression that the only way the Uber/Lyft business model is even remotely viable (without continuous VC subsidy) is classifying drivers as contractors, meaning they don't have to pay them minimum wage or benefits, which lets them undercut taxis.

> as contractors, meaning they don't have to pay them minimum wage or benefits, which lets them undercut taxis.

That's not really true though. Their pay is higher to make up the difference.

No, the main thing is that Uber doesn't have to guarantee them fulltime work, or at least any kind of minimum amount of work.

i.e. Uber can say "No work today, too bad".

Re: Highest French court reclassifies Uber drivers as employees

#10
post #5
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did you jump to this conclusion?

I was under the impression that the only way the Uber/Lyft business model is even remotely viable (without continuous VC subsidy) is classifying drivers as contractors, meaning they don't have to pay them minimum wage or benefits, which lets them undercut taxis.

1) Uber is a public company now, it has not been VC funded for a long time

2) Regular taxi companies generally also treat drivers as contractors

Post reply on HN