GIG ECONOMY
Nuts and Bolt
RIDE-HAILING app Bolt has found a sly way round obligations imposed by a 2021 Supreme Court ruling against rival Uber requiring it to pay drivers for all the time they’re really working, as opposed to just when they’re driving.
The court found that drivers were “workers”, as opposed to independent contractors, entitled to holiday pay and to the minimum wage from the moment they log on and are ready to work. Bolt itself, founded in Estonia in 2013, then lost a similar dispute last year when around 15,000 drivers took it to an employment tribunal, which concluded that “overwhelmingly, the power lies with Bolt” and that its drivers were also workers.