Uber ordered to pay more than 17 million euros to 139 Lyon drivers

They bent the giant. The Lyon labor court has ordered Uber to pay about 17 million euros to 139 VTC drivers, their lawyer said on Friday.

“Today we made a rather historic decision. Uber has been ordered to requalify the contracts of 139 drivers worth between 17 million and 20 million euros,” Stéphane Teissier said, confirming the information of the regional daily newspaper Le Progrès.

These 139 Uber drivers attacked a US company in 2020 that refused to reclassify their independent status as an employment contract.

“Our goal was to prove (…) that this ‘independent’ status that we supposedly had, according to Uber, was not a reality. We worked with the same restrictions as employees, and therefore asked to receive this status and its benefits, or to be truly independent. That is, to be able to choose your price, your races and no longer be under the pressure of the Uber charter, ”Mehdi Medjeri, president of the Association of Independent Drivers of Lyon (Acil), who represented the drivers at the Hearing, reminded our colleagues.

Uber to appeal

The Prud’hommes, who ruled on the recommendation, made their decision “on the basis of the well-established practice of the Court of Cassation of January 2020,” Stéphane Teissier recalled. “The Court of Cassation ruled that Uber drivers should be considered employees. It’s not a surprise. This is a logical application of such case law,” he added.

The Court of Cassation did reclassify the link linking the driver to Uber as an employment contract in March 2020.

An Uber spokesperson, in contrast, felt that the decision “contradicts a position widely shared by industry and appeal courts that uphold the independence of VTC drivers using the app. exclusivity to Uber, or that drivers remain completely free to organize their activities.” After contacting the company, they announced that they were going to file an appeal.