Uber exploits "self-employed"

Self-employed status leaves workers vulnerable to "exploitation", the Work and Pensions Committee concluded. Staff should be designated as workers, with full rights, by default, MPs said. Last year an employment tribunal ruled that Uber drivers were wrongly classified as self-employed.

In the report by the Work and Pensions Committee, chairman Frank Field said companies were "avoiding all their responsibilities" in order to profit from "bogus self-employed designation. This inquiry has convinced me of the need to offer 'worker' status to the drivers who work with those companies as the default option."

Those changes would protect staff from "the appalling practices that have been reported to the committee in this inquiry".