{"id":185351,"date":"2017-07-14T12:07:47","date_gmt":"2017-07-14T10:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=185351"},"modified":"2017-07-14T12:07:47","modified_gmt":"2017-07-14T10:07:47","slug":"uber-drivers-are-now-considered-employees-in-south-africa-heres-what-it-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/185351\/uber-drivers-are-now-considered-employees-in-south-africa-heres-what-it-means\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber drivers are now considered employees in South Africa &#8211; here&#8217;s what it means"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday the\u00a0Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration\u00a0(CCMA) ruled that South Africa&#8217;s Uber drivers were not independent contractors but must instead be considered full-blown employees.<\/p>\n<p>In effect this means that these drivers are given the full protection of \u00a0the Labour Relations Act which includes strict rules on hours worked, payment and leave time.<\/p>\n<p>It also offers a number of protections regarding correct dismissal procedures and provides for right to organise and strike.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/2017\/07\/14\/1062485\/#.tnw_ea9c0Nex\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TheNextWeb\u00a0<\/a>, the CCMA was forced to step in and make a decision after a number of Uber drivers approached the commission citing unfair business practices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe CCMA, however, was confronted with the problem that these cases couldn\u2019t be heard because Uber insisted that they are not employees, and that they are rather independent contractors, and that they cannot be involved in any dispute in the CCMA,&#8221; said Bradley Conradie, Uber South Africa\u2019s Legal Representative.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So, what the award has done, is it unpacked the respective parties views on what the relationship is, and it has concluded that the Uber drivers are in fact employees.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The ruling comes almost a year after\u00a0several hundred Uber drivers in South Africa decided to join the South African Transport and Allied Workers\u2019 Union\u00a0(SATAWU) as they argue that they felt they were being exploited by ride-hailing platform.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/184349\/uber-drivers-should-get-permits-or-get-off-the-road-transport-minister\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Uber drivers should get permits or get off the road: transport minister<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday the\u00a0Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration\u00a0(CCMA) ruled that South Africa&#8217;s Uber drivers were not independent contractors but must instead be considered full-blown employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":115696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-185351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-active"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185351"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185369,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185351\/revisions\/185369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}