City Press reports that Uber drivers in SA will soon launch a new bid to get recognised as employees of the global taxi behemoth, challenging the casualised “gig economy” model of work.  

This follows a defeat in the labour court early last month, when a watershed CCMA ruling that seven drivers were employees of Uber’s local subsidiary, Uber Technologies SA, was overturned.  The judge rejected this as wrong because the claim should have been made against Uber BV in the Netherlands – the company that owns the app.  Due to a mistake made by the union that the drivers previously belonged to, their cases cited the wrong company and the actual merits of the case were not even entertained by the labour court.  The National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsaw), the drivers’ current representative, said there were now three parallel legal routes to take.  First, there will be a new CCMA hearing, citing the correct Uber company.  In addition, the union will consider approaching the CCMA and possibly the labour court for a declaratory ruling in terms of section 200B of the Labour Relations Act.  Another potential legal strategy would be to challenge the legitimacy of the contracts that all Uber drivers have to sign – digitally – with Uber BV.

• Read this report by Dewald Van Rensburg in full at Fin24

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