Private Hire Drivers Were Workers And Entitled To NMW And Holiday Pay

Employment tribunal was right to take a "realistic and worldly-wise" approach as written contract did not reflect the reality of the arrangement

In Addison Lee Limited v Lange and others, the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld the decision of an employment tribunal that private hire drivers who were nominally self-employed were in fact workers and that the time they spent logged on to the company's system was working time.

The claimants were private hire drivers. They brought claims for National Minimum Wage (NMW) and holiday pay, both of which require worker status.

An employment tribunal found that the claimants were workers working under an overarching contract. It found that the written contract did not reflect the...