Drivers have won their legal claim to be classed as workers, giving them rights that include paid holiday and to receive at least the national minimum wage.

Lawyers believe the compensation owed to the 15,000 customers could be worth more than £200 million.

In a ruling handed down this morning, the employment tribunal ruled that the Bolt drivers represented by law firm Leigh Day were not, as Bolt claimed, independent contractors running their own businesses.

Estonian app operator Bolt is a rival to Uber and has been operating in the UK since 2019. As of April 2023, in the UK, 100,000 Bolt drivers were working in 19 cities, including London, Manchester and Birmingham.

The control the firm has over the drivers’ work and the terms and conditions Bolt applies to the drivers’ relationship with the firm mean they are workers, the tribunal ruled.

As workers, they are entitled to workers’ rights and protections under labor law.

The decision follows a three-week hearing within the framework labor court in September 2024. It affects all of the more than 100,000 drivers who take up work through the Bolt app, who can now argue that they should be classified as workers with all the employment rights and protections that classification includes.

Those drivers who are part of the Leigh Day legal claim will also be entitled to back-dated compensation for underpayment of the minimum wage and unpaid leave.

The law firm said there is still time for more drivers to join the legal action and claim their right to compensation. Leigh Day believes that, on average, each driver could be entitled to more than £15,000 in compensation.

The Employment Tribunal will decide next year how much compensation each driver will receive for unpaid holiday pay and lost earnings.

Drivers launched their own legal claim to be classified as workers following the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision that Uber drivers are hardworking. The screws argued that the decision also applied to their work situation. Leigh Day also represented Uber drivers in their successful worker status claim.

Shortly before the Bolt hearing began in September, the firm announced that while it does not consider its drivers to be workers, from 1 August 2024 they will receive holiday pay and the National Living Wage, the same rights drivers were fighting for. for in their claim. However, Leigh Day argued that the way Bolt calculated the payments did not comply with employment law.

Bolt currently only pays its drivers for the time they spend on trips. However, the employment tribunal ruled that drivers should also be paid for time spent logged into the app, provided they are not also logged into apps for other private hire operators.

Leigh Day employment lawyer Charlotte Pettman said the ruling confirmed that “gig economy operators cannot continue to falsely classify their employees as independent contractors running their own business to avoid being awarded the rights to which they are properly entitled. We call on Bolt to compensate its customers without delay.”

The law firm also represents 700 Addison Lee drivers a similar claim currently under discussion by Watford Employment Tribunal. A parallel claim by hundreds of Ola drivers is due to be heard by the Central Employment Tribunal in London next week.

Staff Today has reached out to Bolt for comment.

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