Uber considers benefits for US drivers, says CEO

Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber, said today that the company has considered offering benefits to its drivers. Uber already offers certain European drivers parental leave and sick pay and sick leave benefits.

Khosrowshahi, in a conversation with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff at the firm's annual Dreamforce conference, said temporary workers needed benefits that would accompany them on the move. According to him, Uber would like to bring benefits "if it can work in the ecosystem". San Francisco Chronicle.

Individual workers rarely receive benefits beyond payment, sometimes to avoid creating a legal relationship that is more like a job.

Uber hires its drivers as subcontractors and avoids overhead and professional liability related to a formal job. Unlike many technology companies and other US companies, Uber works largely directly with each driver rather than through contractors. Entrepreneurs at Microsoft, Dropbox, Google, and elsewhere often enjoy some benefits from the company that has a contract with a customer, although of a value that is generally lower than that of people directly employed.

In the European Union, where the legal employment regime is very different, Uber is now making its limited benefits available to drivers who have made 150 trips in the previous eight weeks. This group is estimated at around 150 000 people and applies in 21 European countries. Benefits beyond parental leave include medical benefits and disability insurance beyond what the country's health system offers.

In recent years, Uber and other concert economy companies have been sued because of their contractual status, or decisions have been made by regulators to determine whether their employees were actually employees.

In Australia, the country's Fair Work Commission made a decision earlier this year that Uber had not created an employee relationship because the employment relationship was transactional: a driver could accept or refuse a ride. In April 2018, a federal judge in Philadelphia ruled that Uber drivers were independent contractors under federal law. But at the end of 2017, a UK court ruled that Uber's requirements meant they were employees in the UK. (Uber said that he would appeal.)

When asked to comment, Uber issued a joint statement signed earlier this year by CEO and billionaire Nick Hanauer (active in raising the minimum wage and other pay equity issues) Local branch of the International Union of Service Employees. The statement pleaded for the creation of a system in Washington for the benefits that would follow temporary workers, but no public action has occurred since the beginning of the year. An Uber spokesman pointed to this statement, as well as Uber's insurance partnerships for drivers, one of which the United States has a premium of less than 4 cents per kilometer for miles traveled. Cost.