UK: Supreme Court Ruling on Uber Drivers Unlikely to Impact ME’s

UK: Supreme Court Ruling on Uber Drivers Unlikely to Impact ME’s

At present, no Uber driver in the Middle East is considered an employee of the company, and is paid on a commission basis. (Shutterstock) The Supreme Court decision declared that British drivers for Uber should be classed as workers, not self-employed. The ruling rejected Uber's appeal on an employment tribunal ruling brought by two of its drivers in 2016. Joe Aiston, a London-based senior associate at law firm Taylor Wessing, told Reuters that the ruling could act as a reference for courts and regulators outside the UK. But this is unlikely to have a major impact on Uber drivers in the Middle East as the sector is already heavily regulated, and in Saudi Arabia, it was recently declared that only its citizens could work for services such as Uber. The company's Middle East spokespeople did not respond to an Arab News request for comment on its operations in the region. Instead, they referred to the global statement issued by Jamie Heywood, Uber's regional general manager for Northern and Eastern Europe. "We respect the court's decision which focused on a small number of drivers who used the Uber app in 2016," he said. "Since then, we have made some significant changes