A group of drivers in London have filed a lawsuit against Uber over employment rights and claims that they should officially be recognised as employees and should be entitled to benefits such as healthcare and holiday pay.

In a London tribunal hearing described as “the case of the year in UK employment law”, lawyers working for a group of Uber drivers will argue that the terms and conditions of their work with the company mean that they are not technically self-employed and should be entitled to a range of benefits that they currently do not receive, reports the Guardian.

This is the first time that Uber will have faced legal action in the UK over whether their drivers are workers or self-employed.

The hearing, which starts today and is set to be heard over 6 days, will hear the cases brought by law firm Leigh Day and supported by the GMB union.

The test cases will determine whether Uber is acting unlawfully by not providing drivers with basic workers’ rights. These test cases will not only determine a further 17 claims that have been brought against Uber but will have wider implications for the tens of thousands of Uber drivers throughout the UK.

The case also claims that Uber acts unlawfully by deducting sums from drivers' pay for customer complaints. Uber said it was rare for pay to be deducted and it would only occur in circumstances where the route taken by the driver was deemed to be excessively long, for example.

Justin Bowden, national secretary of the GMB union, told the BBC: "The issue here is not about taking away the flexibility but the high degree of control that Uber exercises over their drivers. You either have employment laws that people have to follow or you don't."

Annie Powell, employment lawyer at law firm Leigh Day who will represent the drivers, told the Guardian that the case depended on the nature of Uber’s business and the control it had over drivers.

“Uber is arguing that it is a technology company and that it does not provide a transport service to customers, it just puts them in touch with drivers,” Powell said.

Powell stated that Uber, which has its European headquarters in the Netherlands, was seeking to argue that UK drivers can only seek remedy in the Dutch courts.

If the ruling favours the drivers, it could lead to a number of other businesses within the gig economy facing similar claims.

"This claim is vital for the thousands of Uber drivers who work in England and Wales and has implications even wider than that," Annie Powell, employment lawyer at firm Leigh Day said.

"We are seeing a creeping erosion of employment rights as companies misclassify their workers as self-employed so as to avoid paying them holiday pay and the national minimum wage," Powell said.

Uber operates a car hire platform that connects passengers to thousands of drivers through an app on the passenger’s smartphone.

Using the app, passengers can request they are picked up from any location within London (or hundreds of other cities worldwide). Passengers pay Uber for the journey, which in turn pays the drivers.

Uber is also facing litigation in the US as a class action settlement worth up to USD 100 million has gone before federal judges in San Francisco.