Log every week's total app-on-in-territory hours separately from engaged hours, because the Aslam gap between the two is where your claim lives. Screenshot your weekly Uber pay statement showing fares, holiday pay line, NMW top-up and pension deduction before the app refreshes. If your weekly engaged pay over working-time hours drops below £12.21 an hour (age 21+), start a file for a holiday pay / NMW claim. Contact ADCU, GMB or IWGB for help building evidence, or Leigh Day, Bates Wells or Farore Law for legal steps. Start ACAS Early Conciliation inside three months minus one day from any underpayment or deactivation you plan to challenge.

Aslam ruling: Uber BV v Aslam [2021] UKSC 5

Factual guidanceFresh — reviewed 19 April 2026Sources: 7Next review: 18 July 2026

What it is

Uber BV v Aslam [2021] UKSC 5 is the UK Supreme Court ruling from 19 February 2021 that confirmed Uber drivers are "workers" under the Employment Rights Act 1996, the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 and the Working Time Regulations 1998. The Court said drivers are working any time they have the app on, are in their licensed territory and are ready and willing to accept trips, not just passenger-in-car time. The ruling ended years of Uber arguing it was just a "tech platform" and set the baseline for minimum wage, holiday pay and pension auto-enrolment claims.

How it applies to you

The Supreme Court listed five reasons Uber drivers are workers, not independent businesses: Uber sets the fare, Uber sets the contract terms, Uber penalises drivers for rejecting trips, Uber rates and disciplines through the app, and Uber stops drivers building their own customer base. Those facts put Uber in the employer-style control role, not a neutral booking service. The big practical point is "working time" versus Uber's "engaged time". Uber still tends to pay the National Living Wage floor based on engaged time (from accept to drop-off). The Supreme Court says working time is wider. Take a 22 year old Uber driver in Manchester logged in for 38 hours in a week, engaged for 27 hours, who took £420 gross. On Uber's engaged-time measure the floor is 27 x £12.21 = £329.67, so £420 clears it. On the Aslam working-time measure the floor is 38 x £12.21 = £463.98. That is a £43.98 shortfall that week, and worth six-figure sums when accrued across hundreds of drivers. Aslam does not automatically make every gig worker a worker. Deliveroo beat the same test in IWGB v CAC [2023] UKSC 43 on a substitution point. Amazon Flex, Just Eat, Stuart and Bolt still have no killer Supreme Court ruling on their own facts. But Aslam is the template courts now use, and the January 2025 and March 2026 Addison Lee tribunal rulings extended the same reasoning to hundreds more private hire drivers with more than £20 million in back pay at stake.

Action steps

Log every week's total app-on-in-territory hours separately from engaged hours, because the Aslam gap between the two is where your claim lives.
Screenshot your weekly Uber pay statement showing fares, holiday pay line, NMW top-up and pension deduction before the app refreshes.
If your weekly engaged pay over working-time hours drops below £12.21 an hour (age 21+), start a file for a holiday pay / NMW claim.
Contact ADCU, GMB or IWGB for help building evidence, or Leigh Day, Bates Wells or Farore Law for legal steps.
Start ACAS Early Conciliation inside three months minus one day from any underpayment or deactivation you plan to challenge.

What it is

How it applies to gig workers

The big practical point is "working time" versus Uber's "engaged time". Uber still tends to pay the National Living Wage floor based on engaged time (from accept to drop-off). The Supreme Court says working time is wider. Take a 22 year old Uber driver in Manchester logged in for 38 hours in a week, engaged for 27 hours, who took £420 gross. On Uber's engaged-time measure the floor is 27 x £12.21 = £329.67, so £420 clears it. On the Aslam working-time measure the floor is 38 x £12.21 = £463.98. That is a £43.98 shortfall that week, and worth six-figure sums when accrued across hundreds of drivers.

Aslam does not automatically make every gig worker a worker. Deliveroo beat the same test in IWGB v CAC [2023] UKSC 43 on a substitution point. Amazon Flex, Just Eat, Stuart and Bolt still have no killer Supreme Court ruling on their own facts. But Aslam is the template courts now use, and the January 2025 and March 2026 Addison Lee tribunal rulings extended the same reasoning to hundreds more private hire drivers with more than £20 million in back pay at stake.

What you should do about it

Log every week's total app-on-in-territory hours separately from engaged hours, because the Aslam gap between the two is where your claim lives.
Screenshot your weekly Uber pay statement showing fares, holiday pay line, NMW top-up and pension deduction before the app refreshes.
If your weekly engaged pay over working-time hours drops below £12.21 an hour (age 21+), start a file for a holiday pay / NMW claim.
Contact ADCU, GMB or IWGB for help building evidence, or Leigh Day, Bates Wells or Farore Law for legal steps.
Start ACAS Early Conciliation inside three months minus one day from any underpayment or deactivation you plan to challenge.

Last reviewed

19 April 2026

Internal links this page emits:

Primary source used:

C:\Users\thest\Documents\GigKiln\Research\S3-rights\3.1-uber-ruling.md
C:\Users\thest\Documents\GigKiln\Research\S3-rights\3.2-uber-ruling-deep-dive.md

Sources

Uber BV v Aslam [2021] UKSC 5
Employment Rights Act 1996 section 230
National Minimum Wage Act 1998
Working Time Regulations 1998
Supreme Court judgment summary 19 February 2021
ADCU statement on Aslam Supreme Court ruling
Leigh Day Uber worker status case page