Bolt drivers have won their legal claim to be classified as workers, giving them rights including paid holidays and receiving at least the national minimum wage.

Lawyers believe compensation owed to their 15,000 clients could amount to more than £200m.

In a ruling handed down this morning, the employment tribunal ruled that Bolt’s drivers represented by law firm Leigh Day were not, as Bolt claimed, self-employed contractors running their own businesses.

Estonian app operator Bolt is a rival to Uber and has operated in the UK since 2019. As of April 2023, there were 100,000 Bolt drivers in the UK working in 19 cities, including London, Manchester and Birmingham.

The control the company has over the drivers’ work and the terms and conditions Bolt applies to the drivers’ relationship with the company mean they are workers, the court ruled.

As workers, they are entitled to labor rights and the protection of labor laws.

The ruling comes after a three-week hearing in the labor court in September 2024. It affects the more than 100,000 drivers working through private hire app Bolt, who can now argue that they should be classified as workers with all the employment rights and protections that classification includes.

Those drivers who are part of Leigh Day’s legal claim will also be entitled to retroactive compensation for underpayment of minimum wage and unpaid holidays.

The law firm said there is still time for more drivers to join the legal claim and claim the right to compensation. Leigh Day believes that on average each driver could be entitled to compensation of more than £15,000.

The labor court will decide next year how much compensation each driver will receive for non-payment of holidays and loss of income.

Bolt drivers launched their own legal claim to be classified as workers following the 2021 Supreme Court ruling that Uber drivers are workers.. Bolt drivers said the ruling also applies to their employment situation. Leigh Day also represented Uber drivers in their successful claim for employment status.

Shortly before Bolt’s hearing began in September, the company announced that, although it did not consider its drivers workers, from August 1, 2024 they would receive holiday pay and the national living wage, the same rights for which The drivers were fighting. because in your claim. However, Leigh Day argued that the way Bolt calculated the payments did not comply with employment law.

Currently, Bolt only pays its drivers for the time spent on trips. However, the employment tribunal decided that drivers should also be paid for the time they spend logged into the app, as long as they are not also logged into apps from other private hire operators.

Leigh Day employment team lawyer Charlotte Pettman said the ruling confirmed that “gig economy operators cannot continue to falsely classify their workers as independent contractors who run their own business to avoid granting them the rights to which they are entitled.” Those workers have the right. “We demand Bolt compensate our customers without further delay.”

The law firm also represents 700 Addison Lee drivers in a similar claim is currently being heard by Watford Employment Tribunal. A parallel lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of Ola drivers will be filed at London’s Central Employment Tribunal next week.

Personnel Today has contacted Bolt for comment.

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