Bolt drivers win employee status at tribunal

Bolt drivers have won their legal claim to be classified as employees, giving them rights such as paid holiday and receiving at least the national minimum wage.

Lawyers believe the damages awarded to their 15,000 clients could be worth more than £200 million.

In a judgment this morning, the employment tribunal ruled that Bolt’s drivers, represented by law firm Leigh Day, were not, as Bolt claimed, self-employed entrepreneurs running their own businesses.

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

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

As employees, they are entitled to employee rights and protection under labor law.

The ruling follows a three-week hearing in the labor court in September 2024. It affects all of the more than 100,000 drivers who come to work through the Bolt Private Hiiling app, and who can now argue that they should be classified as employees with all the employment rights and protections the classification includes.

The drivers included in Leigh Day’s legal claim are also entitled to retroactive compensation for underpayment of the minimum wage and unpaid vacation days.

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

The labor court will decide next year how much compensation for unpaid holiday pay and lost income each driver will receive.

Bolt drivers launched their own legal claim to be classified as employees after the 2021 Supreme Court ruling Uber drivers are employees. Bolt drivers claimed the ruling also applies to their work situation. Leigh Day also represented Uber drivers in their successful claim for employee status.

Shortly before the Bolt hearing was set to begin in September, the company announced that while it does not consider its drivers employees, it would receive vacation pay and the national living wage starting August 1, 2024, the same rights drivers fought for. for 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 rides. However, the employment tribunal has decided that drivers should also be paid for the time they have logged into the app, provided they are not also logged into apps from other private hire companies.

Leigh Day employment lawyer Charlotte Pettman said the judgment confirmed that “gig economy operators cannot continue to misclassify their workers as independent contractors running their own businesses to prevent them from receiving the rights these workers deserve are entitled to. We call on Bolt to compensate our customers without further delay.”

The law firm also represents 700 Addison Lee drivers a similar claim is currently being heard by the Watford Employment Tribunal. A parallel claim on behalf of hundreds of Ola drivers will be heard by the London Central Employment Tribunal next week.

Personnel Today has contacted Bolt for comment.

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