Bolt drivers win legal claim to be classified as employees

Thousands of Bolt drivers won their legal claim to be recognized as employees, entitling them to paid holidays and a minimum wage.

Following the landmark ruling, handed down by an employment tribunal on Friday, law firm Leigh Day said the damages owed to the 15,000 drivers they represent could be worth more than £200 million.

The tribunal found that the relationship between Bolt and its drivers does not constitute self-employment, as Bolt claims, but rather an employment contract, which provides the drivers with essential worker protections under employment law.

It will affect all of the more than 100,000 drivers who get to work through the Bolt ride hailing app, Leigh Day said.

This decision was made after a three-week hearing in September 2024.

Leigh Day, who also represented Uber drivers in a similar successful claim in 2021, claims that each Bolt driver could be entitled to more than £15,000 in backdated compensation for underpayment and unpaid holiday pay.

The ruling affects more than 100,000 drivers using Bolt’s private hire app, who can now apply for employee status.

Ahead of the hearing, Bolt announced it would start offering holiday pay and the national living wage from August 2024.

The tribunal ruled that drivers should be compensated not only for journeys, but also for the time they spent logged into the app, provided they were not logged into other private hire apps at the same time.

Further hearings are planned to determine the exact compensation amounts for affected drivers.

Leigh Day employment lawyer Charlotte Pettman said the ruling marks an important step forward in ensuring fair treatment for gig economy workers.

“We are very pleased that the employment tribunal has ruled in favor of our Bolt driver customers,” Ms Pettman said.

“This ruling confirms that gig economy operators cannot misclassify their workers as independent contractors running their own businesses to avoid receiving the rights these workers are rightfully entitled to.”

“We call on Bolt to compensate our customers without further delay,” she added.

Bolt, which is headquartered in Estonia, has not yet commented on the tribunal’s decision.

A parallel claim on behalf of hundreds of Ola drivers will be heard by London’s Central Employment Tribunal from Tuesday. This is intended to last eight days.