I see a surprising amount of "hot takes" on here on TfL not extending Uber's license in the UK and how it's a bone on competition etc. Can we talk about the #decentwork aspect and that in fact this might be a good thing?

Let's see, shall we:

1/ Naturally, on #decentwork and we need to talk about workers' rights. In the UK, the Supreme Court confirmed a 2016 employment tribunal ruling that in fact Uber drivers are workers. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/19/uber-loses-appeal-over-driver-employment-rights

1b/ It is just because of the idiosyncrasies of UK law, the the ruling extends to the plaintiffs only, rather than all Uber drivers.

Fun tidbit: The judges found there was a “high degree of fiction” in the wording of the standard agreement between Uber and its drivers

2/ Let’s try look into - Uber keeps their data unaccessible to anyone but academics they contract to write ‘independent’ reports with them - who rides for Uber:

2b/ The @CIPD in their ‘To gig or not to gig’ report for the Taylor review (both 2017) gives us the stats and some interesting case studies on ‘gigging’ and especially Uber driving.

https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/to-gig-or-not-to-gig_2017-stories-from-the-modern-economy_tcm18-18955.pdf

3/ 25% of gig workers do it as their main job. Of those, 20% find it (very) difficult difficult financially. And importantly: a broader variety of ethnic backgrounds are prevalent among gig workers than among the general labour force (CIPD, 2017).

4/ Those are groups of people who are more at danger to be marginalised in society - turning to 'self-employment' or gig work because they cannot find standard employment.

5/ Let’s talk about income in the gig economy and driving for Uber. Again, the numbers are not defined as Uber doesn’t even hand over this data to its drivers when under court order as it would allow drivers to calculate their hourly earnings (Corporate Europe Observatory, 2019)

6/ Where do gig workers like Uber drivers go to complain about their working conditions? 25% of gig workers don’t know where they would go if they wanted to complain or seek compensation about their experience (CIPD, 2017).

7/ Lastly, fun fact: did you know that there are 150.000 ‘independent drivers and couriers’ working for Uber in Europe? Imagine if they all enjoyed conditions of #decentwork…

P.S. @DmitryOpines has done a little comment thread on the particular UK situation that made TfL decide not to extend Uber’s license, which was less about working condition (my bone with these hot takes) and more about passenger safety: https://twitter.com/DmitryOpines/status/1198935529242402816