Bolt drivers are workers, Employment Tribunal rules

Bolt drivers should now be legally recognised as ‘workers’ rather than self-employed contractors, according to an Employment Tribunal ruling.

The decision grants more than 100,000 Bolt drivers rights and protections under UK employment law, including eligibility for the national minimum wage and statutory holiday pay.

Lawyers from Leigh Day representing the drivers said the employment tribunal decision means drivers could receive collective compensation worth more than £200m – or around £15,000 per driver.

The tribunal dismissed Bolt’s claim that its drivers are independent contractors, arguing instead that Bolt’s control over drivers and strict terms qualify them as ‘workers’.

The tribunal stated: “Overwhelmingly, the power lies with Bolt,” adding “there is nothing in the relationship which demands, or even suggests, agency,” rejecting the notion that drivers operate as independent agents.

The tribunal stated: “The supposed contract between the Bolt driver and the passenger is a fiction designed by Bolt – and in particular its lawyers – to defeat the argument that it has an employer/worker relationship with the driver.”

A Bolt spokesperson said Bolt could appeal the decision, adding: “Drivers are at the heart of what we do, and we have always supported the overwhelming majority’s choice to remain self-employed, independent contractors, protecting their flexibility, personal control and earning potential.”

Bolt App Drivers and Couriers Union (ACDU) General Secretary Zamir Dreni said: “This ruling against Bolt is long overdue but, once again, the poorest paid workers must spend years in litigation while successive governments stand by idly. The ruling vindicates our position on working time and demonstrates that neither Bolt nor Uber have never fully complied with the Supreme Court ruling which means that between 40 and 60% of true working time remains unpaid.”

He continued: “Rather than force workers back into courts for another decade of litigation, the government needs to step in now and fix the current employment bill, which omitted protections for gig workers, so that Britain’s hard working minicab drivers and delivery couriers get the protections they deserve.”

Former ACDU boss James Farrar criticised the government’s recent omission of worker status in the employment bill, saying: “It is a shame that the government baulked on addressing worker status in the current employment bill and should now do so in light of this ruling.”

The tribunal also said that drivers should be paid for logged-in waiting time – something that Bolt’s rival Uber has refused to do in the wake of similar rulings about its drivers.