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Uber must employ its drivers, Dutch court rules

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Re: Uber must employ its drivers, Dutch court rules

#161
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I hire a contractor to renovate my home to my exact specifications, by your logic they are my employee because they couldn't choose the "route" or "destination?"

They can choose to not work with you and instead work with another client that has specifications that fit better with their work.

So do drivers for grubhub/doordash/uber eats. They see the final payout and have the choice to skip the order if it doesn't pay well enough.

Re: Uber must employ its drivers, Dutch court rules

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what if I legitimacy want to be a freelancer? Lifestyle reasons, freedom, whatever. I should have a choice.

Good luck with that, if you pay for all the mandated services, you will run a deficit. Yes people laugh off drivers as a no skill job, but it's a craft. Shift work, passenger safety and so forth, they need to pass a test, sure that's a bit outdated in the time of online maps. But I can not simply open a dentistry just because I feel so due to lifestyle choices.

Indeed, here in Belgium there are extensive requirements for taxi drivers in terms of certification, education and vehicle maintenance. That's one of the reasons Uber never really succeeded here - even as a "freelance driver", you still need to be qualified and that takes time and effort.

Re: Uber must employ its drivers, Dutch court rules

#163
post #105
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, bear with me here. Same system as now, but if you make less than minimum hourly wage (calculated every month), the company covers the difference. I am pretty sure the drivers would nearly always make more than that. Or is it illegal to just have employees set their own time/targets?

It gets expensive when drivers game the system. What happens when a driver just stops driving? You have to fire them. Which can take quite a bit of effort. What if a driver calls in sick? You have to check that. If a driver is an employee, who provides the car?

Those don't seem like big problems to me, but Uber knows the game better. I just think it could work while being legal.

Re: Uber must employ its drivers, Dutch court rules

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the same rules applied to all taxi drivers before Uber. In a lot of place taxi driver were forbidden to not accept customer hailing them, and the price is controlled almost everywhere. The logic would be that all taxi drivers have to been employed.

> In a lot of place taxi driver were forbidden to not accept customer hailing them I've hang out with my fair share of taxi drivers around the world (mainly Europe and South America) but never once heard of them being forbidden of not accepting customers, and heard plenty of stories when someone really fucked up tried to hail them but they declined. It doesn't mean it's not forbidden, but hard to reconcile my underst…

Personenbeförderungsgesetz (PBefG) § 22 Beförderungspflicht which applies to taxis in Germany. Roughly translates to:

Human Transportation Act §22 Duty to Transport.

Re: Uber must employ its drivers, Dutch court rules

#165
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In Italy paying a net salary of 2,000 euros will cost the company 6000+. I dispute this number. Do you have a source for this?

I don't know much about Italy but should be pretty similar to Germany where we generally say the employer pays double. Example person unmarried, no kids, 35. - net: 2000€ - gross: 3100€ - company cost: 3850€

In Poland, it's like this, for an country-wide-average salary:

- net: 4300 PLN - gross: 6000 PLN - total employer cost: 7200 PLN

So, the total tax burden is around 40%.

What gets neglected in these discussions though is that everything employer pays is counted as a cost he can write off from revenue to decrease his profit taxes (assuming company makes profit!). So, the effective cost on employer side is lower than 7200 PLN - naive calculation, assuming 15% profit taxes, would make it 0.85 * 7200 PLN = 6100 PLN.

Re: Uber must employ its drivers, Dutch court rules

#166

Rightly so. The 'gig economy' is abused by quite a few companies to create employment like situations without the required trappings (social security payments, employee protection, hourly minimums and so on). This was long overdue, let's hope it has precedent effect for other companies that abuse the ZZP construct.

The whole appeal for the drivers was "employment-like" opportunities with more freedom for themselves. This takes that away. If they wanted regular jobs they would have sought that.

Re: Uber must employ its drivers, Dutch court rules

#167

Rightly so. The 'gig economy' is abused by quite a few companies to create employment like situations without the required trappings (social security payments, employee protection, hourly minimums and so on). This was long overdue, let's hope it has precedent effect for other companies that abuse the ZZP construct.

The whole appeal for the drivers was "employment-like" opportunities with more freedom for themselves. This takes that away. If they wanted regular jobs they would have sought that.

You are badly out of touch. People take the jobs they have to take to survive. The choice you imagine does not exist for most of humanity.

Re: Uber must employ its drivers, Dutch court rules

#168
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can choose to not work with you and instead work with another client that has specifications that fit better with their work.

So do drivers for grubhub/doordash/uber eats. They see the final payout and have the choice to skip the order if it doesn't pay well enough.

Except for the part that the companies will punish them for rejecting orders, and that they can't negotiate the price of the orders nor set any price themselves.

Re: Uber must employ its drivers, Dutch court rules

#169
post #7

Uber says the majority of drivers don't want this, which I'd call bs on, but has anyone heard from actual drivers what they want?

Uber drivers I've asked have, without exception, said that they oppose these moves to make them employees. I ask almost every one whose car I get in.

Re: Uber must employ its drivers, Dutch court rules

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what if I legitimacy want to be a freelancer? Lifestyle reasons, freedom, whatever. I should have a choice.

Working part time for Uber won't have less freedom than working as a free lancer for Uber.

Absolutely it will. Everytime you try and force a labor law, companies have people who are smart and figure out a way around it. Now they can tell Uber drivers when they will work and where they will work. So if you don’t want to work the night shift, too bad. They will keep the part time hours to just the minimum needed and whatever shortfall they have to hit their yearly plan will be supplemented by releasing drivers who won’t work busy and profitable times. If you are the guy who drives a few evenings a week on the side, you may be out of luck.
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