More than 12,500 drivers are bringing legal action against ride-hailing firm Bolt in a bid to be classified as workers rather than self-employed.
Law firm Leigh Day is representing the drivers, who claim Bolt has significant control over how they work and so they should be granted the same rights and protections as typical workers.
Eight drivers will testify at the hearings which begin today (11 September) and the case should last three weeks.
Estonian app operator Bolt is a rival to Uber and has been operating in the UK since 2019. As of April 2023, there were 100,000 Bolt drivers in the UK working across 19 cities including London, Manchester and Birmingham.
The company currently treats drivers as self-employed contractors, although in August it announced it would pay them holiday pay and would give them a guarantee of being paid the national living wage.
Worker status
Leigh Day will argue that the way Bolt is calculating these payments is not compliant with current legislation and that the firm should compensate workers for unpaid holiday or previous minimum wage shortfalls.
Charlotte Pettman, representing the drivers, said the claim would follow similar lines to the 2021 case involving Uber, which ruled that its drivers were workers.
“Following the ruling by the Supreme Court in 2021 that Uber drivers are workers with the rights that this status brings, thousands of Bolt drivers believe that they too are workers and not self-employed contractors,” she explained.
The Supreme Court decision hinged on a number of factors, such as the fact Uber drivers could not set their own fares; that Uber set the terms and conditions of service; that drivers would be penalised for not accepting or cancelling rides; and the rating system imposed by the company.
Leigh Day is acting on a ‘no win no fee’ basis, meaning Bolt drivers will not have to pay anything unless their claim is successful.
A Bolt spokesperson said: “Bolt enables drivers to be their own boss, and the majority of private-hire drivers consistently state that they wish to remain self-employed independent contractors, as they value the flexibility, personal control over pricing, and earning potential offered by this model.
“In a recent Bolt survey, 6 in 10 drivers identified the ability to choose their own hours as the most important aspect of their work, and 9 in 10 choosing to connect with customers across multiple platforms to maximise earnings. Some drivers across the industry have expressed their desire to be considered workers and this will be heard in the Employment Tribunal in September. Bolt is a champion of entrepreneurs, and we are committed to supporting drivers to succeed and grow on their terms.”
In July, the new government said it would consult on a new single worker-status as part of its plan to Make Work Pay. This would simplify and strengthen the employment rights for many, it argues, as it would only differentiate between genuinely self-employed people and other workers.
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