The App Drivers & Couriers Union (ADCU), the union for private hire drivers and couriers, called for a 24-hour national strike for Uber drivers which began from midnight until 23:59 Wednesday 22 June 2022.

In addition to the strike action, the ADCU will stage a protest demonstration in front of Uber’s offices at Aldgate Tower in London between 11am and 1pm on Wednesday 22 June 2022. The union is also asking for the cooperation of the travelling public to not cross the digital picket line and not to use the Uber app during the 24-hour strike period.

The union is demanding that Uber comply with the Supreme Court ruling and pay drivers at least the minimum wage and holiday pay for all working time from log on to log off.

“Currently Uber is only prepared to pay the minimum wage after costs from the point of dispatch to drop off but not including standby time which is around 40% of working time. Uber has not adjusted the costs calculations used for calculation of the minimum wage despite runaway inflation for fuel and operating costs,” the union stated.

The union is also demanding that Uber raise fares and ‘end its practice of unfair dismissals’. According to the union, drivers are often flagged for summary dismissal by automated means and are denied any proper due process of investigation, appeal or representation. It also demands that Uber obey the UK GDPR and provide full algorithmic transparency, so drivers understand how they have been profiled, performance managed and on what basis they have been either allocated work or had it withheld.

The ADCU also announced that it has separately complained to the Mayor of London and the Metropolitan Police after an internal memo from the building management at Uber offices in Aldgate Tower was leaked to the union.

“The leaked letter suggests that Uber is in collaboration with the Met Police to provide intelligence on the union, the strike action and the planned protest. The union has asked the Mayor of London to intervene to demand that the Met immediately cease any such intelligence gathering on lawful trade union activity. We await a response from the Mayor and the Met,” the union stated.

Abdurzak Hadi, ADCU London Chair said, “Uber drivers have never been worse off than they are right now. Drivers have been exposed to hyperinflation while Uber refuses to either obey the Supreme Court ruling which protects workers or raise fares and pay to offset inflation of their operating costs. This is beyond greed, Uber has placed its workforce in very dangerous circumstances and the result is driver over work, declining mental health and families in great distress. I implore the government to dismiss the Uber spin and urgently intervene to enforce the law against what is an increasingly out of control company.”

Following last year’s Supreme Court decision, Uber announced that it would launch a nationwide consultation to seek the views of all active drivers who use the app in the UK.

However on November 2021, Uber was back in court and accused of trying to undermine the UK’s landmark Supreme Court judgment in February 2021 which effectively forced the firm to provide worker rights for its drivers. Uber had challenged a small part of the landmark ruling, where a judge’s comments suggest the company should enter into a direct contract with passengers when providing car journeys. 

Uber has previously said it was committed to the worker changes it made earlier this year and that “this legal procedure is seeking to clarify a different and narrow point of law.”

On December 2021, the High Court Administrative Court refused Uber’s application to declare its controversial gig-economy business model lawful.

Demand for services from Uber and other ridesharing apps in London have soared yesterday due to the railway worker strikes.