Uber accepts Swiss court decision on employee

There are questions about whether the court verdict could apply to other Uber drivers. © Keystone / Christian Beutler

The US ride-hailing firm Uber says it will not appeal a Swiss court verdict that a former driver should be classified as an employee of the platform.

In September an appeals court in canton Vaud ruled that the Uberpop driver had been unfairly dismissed and should enjoy the same rights as an employee of a taxi company. The man had complained of being denied access to the Uber app in 2016 following customer complaints.

The judgement had confirmed a previous ruling from an employment tribunal in western Switzerland. Uber has now declined to appeal the decision further, the company told Swiss public radio, SRF, on its consumer programme Espresso.

The Unia trade union told SRF that the decision represented a “milestone” in the employment rights of Uber drivers.

But Roger Rudolph, professor of labour law at the University of Zurich, cast doubts on whether the verdict in this individual case could be extended to other drivers.

In 2019 Uber said it had some 400,000 active users of its app in Switzerland and 3,200 drivers in four cities. The company has been involved in a number of legal cases globally to determine whether drivers are self-employed entrepreneurs or employees of Uber.