Uber and Uber Eats drivers work for themselves, Employment Court told

Thursday, 30 June 2022

A set of companies making the Uber platform in New Zealand are intermediaries and not the employers, the Employment Court has heard.

A group of drivers for Uber and Uber Eats – through unions E Tū and First Union – have asked the Employment Court to declare they are employees.

If so, they would be eligible for benefits like bereavement and holiday leave and pay equity.

Chief Employment Court judge Christina Inglis​ has been hearing the complicated case in Wellington to determine if there is an employment relationship between the companies that make up Uber and drivers and deliverers.

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She has heard from several drivers about their relationship with the companies and how it works.

The companies are Raiser Operations BV, Uber Portier BV, Uber BV, Portier New Zealand Ltd and Rasier New Zealand Ltd.

The companies’ lawyer Gillian Service​ told the judge Uber was a technology business that provided, supported and maintained the digital platforms.

She said the drivers were not employed at any point in time.

The drivers used the platform, joined up with others on the platform who wanted to use them, had the transactions matched and got encouragement.

But the companies were intermediaries.

Service said the drivers and unions were taking a very binary traditional approach to the relationships involved.

Overseas various countries, like the United Kingdom and France, have already affirmed that Uber drivers are employees.

Service said if a change was needed, it needed to be done to the law by Parliament.

The companies were all different entities that worked in different ways, had different roles and different structures, she said.

“You can’t just lump them into one identifiable entity.”

Service said there were no requirements about when the drivers drove, where they chose to go, when they chose to go, how long for and on which platform.

That was not the sort of relationship that was part of a traditional employer/employee one, she said.

“They work for themselves,” Service said.

The case is expected to finish on Friday, with the judge reserving her decision.