This ruling is a huge win for gig economy workers in Britain and right across Europe. The information asymmetry & trade secrets protections relied upon by gig economy employers to exploit workers and deny them even the most basic employment rights for fundamentals like pay, work allocation and unfair dismissals must now come to an end as a result of this ruling. Uber, Ola Cabs and all other platform employers cannot continue to get away with concealing the controlling hand of an employment relationship in clandestine algorithms.<\/p>\n

Too many workers have had their working lives and mental health destroyed by false claims of fraudulent activity without any opportunity to know precisely what allegations have been made let alone answer them. Instead, to save money and avoid their responsibility as employers, platforms have built unjust automated HR decision making systems with no humans in the loop. Left unchecked, such callous systems risk becoming the norm in the future world of work. I\u2019m grateful for the moral courage of the courts expressed in this important ruling.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The companies have been given two months to provide the requested information to the drivers (with the risk of fines of daily several thousand euros apiece for non-compliance), as well as being ordered to pick up the majority of the case costs.<\/p>\n