{"id":3053,"date":"2018-10-09T13:30:28","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T13:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/uber-drivers-stage-uk-strikes-over-pay-and-conditions\/"},"modified":"2018-10-09T13:30:28","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T13:30:28","slug":"uber-drivers-stage-uk-strikes-over-pay-and-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/uber-drivers-stage-uk-strikes-over-pay-and-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber drivers stage UK strikes over pay and conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"uber\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/10029\/production\/_103777556_dpexw42xgaa_uns.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Josiah Mortimer<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Uber drivers are staging strikes in several UK cities in a protest over pay and working conditions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hundreds&#8221; of drivers are expected to switch off their apps from 1pm, making themselves unavailable for work, union organisers said.<\/p>\n<p>Protests are also being held outside the ride-hailing app&#8217;s offices in London, Nottingham and Birmingham. <\/p>\n<p>Uber defended its pay record, saying it had rolled out numerous benefits for employees in the last few months.<\/p>\n<p>The rallies are being organised by The United Private Hire Drivers (UPHD) branch of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB).<\/p>\n<p>It is demanding a fare increase to \u00a32 a mile, a reduction in commission paid by drivers to Uber, and an end to what it calls &#8220;unfair&#8221; driver deactivations. <\/p>\n<p>The IWGB is also calling on Uber to honour an employment tribunal verdict in 2016 which rejected the ride-hailing app&#8217;s claim that drivers are self-employed and not entitled to minimum wage or paid holidays.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">&#8216;Respect the app picket line&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>James Farrar, head of the UPHD branch, said &#8220;hundreds&#8221; are expected to join the strikes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you look at social media feeds its viral at the moment. In the history of our union, I&#8217;ve never seen anything quite like it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Images of protests in London and Birmingham are being posted on social media. Additional police supervision was called to Uber&#8217;s London headquarters after several demonstrators tried to storm the building.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson was among those expressing support for the strike on Twitter. John McDonnell, the party&#8217;s shadow chancellor, also called on people to &#8220;respect the app picket line.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>An Uber spokesperson said the company stood by its pay record, adding that it had introduced sickness, injury, maternity and paternity protections &#8220;over the last few months.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The firm did not say how the strikes would affect its service.<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday&#8217;s walkout comes after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-45734662\" class=\"story-body__link\">strikes by employees of UberEats, McDonalds, Wetherspoons and TGI Fridays<\/a> last week over pay disputes.<\/p>\n<p>In a separate protest on the same day, 50 UberEats couriers, Uber drivers and supporters temporarily occupied the lobby of Uber&#8217;s London headquarters.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                 <span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">IWGB<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><figcaption class=\"media-caption\"><span class=\"off-screen\">Image caption<\/span><br \/>\n                <span class=\"media-caption__text\"><br \/>\n                    Uber&#8217;s London headquarters was briefly invaded during protests last week<br \/>\n                <\/span><br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Uber was recently valued at $72bn, making it one of the most valuable privately held firms in the world.<\/p>\n<p>But the company&#8217;s expansion into food delivery and bike sharing have eaten into recent earnings.<\/p>\n<p>In August, the firm reported a 51% annual increase in income from its taxi app business, but adjusted losses in the previous three months were up by almost a third on the previous quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber&#8217;s chief executive, said the company was &#8220;continuing to grow at an impressive rate for a business of our scale.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-45796409\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Josiah Mortimer Uber drivers are staging strikes in several UK cities in a protest over pay and working conditions. &#8220;Hundreds&#8221; of drivers are expected to switch off their apps from 1pm, making themselves unavailable for work, union organisers said. Protests are also being held outside the ride-hailing app&#8217;s offices in London, Nottingham and &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3054,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}