New Zealand’s two largest private sector unions are taking Uber to court with a claim that its drivers are entitled to the full protection of employment law and are not – as the company maintains – self-employed contractors.

E tū and FIRST unions are seeking a determination from the Employment Court that the drivers are employees. They plan to call individual drivers as witnesses in a case that is bound to bring the conditions of so-called ‘gig’ workers into sharp focus.

It is thought there are more than 6500 Uber drivers in the country, although that estimate is from 2019 and pre-dates the company’s expansion into six more centres.

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