A higher court in Brazil has passed a judgment that the drivers working with Uber are not employees of the mobile ride-hailing firm, a ruling that will strengthen the business model of the firm in its second-largest market of Brazil.
The verdict by Superior Court of Justice, which is the second highest court in Brazil and is also known as STJ, was decided last week and made public on Wednesday, making it a very first decision of its kind on the issue by a Brazilian court which will be setting standard for interpreting the law and also influencing future court decision in cases with similar mobile apps involved in them.
With their services provided to the company from time to time, having no need of following any pre decided timetable or to follow any sort of office timing and for having no fixed salary, the app’s driver not came under the chain of command of the Uber company, the unanimous ruling stated.
For Uber Technologies Inc, after the United States, Brazil is the second biggest market in the number of trips by drivers, with Sao Paolo as biggest city for the company that is even ahead of cities like New York and Mexico City in number of trips.
Uber has to face similar debates in other markets like Britain where courts ruled out that the divers are employees of the company, and in United States, where a verdict of California court shuns the argument of Uber and other ride-hailing platforms that driver are independent contractor to them.
The technological tools available now a day provide new types of economic relationship and financial dealings in which drivers play the role of people who doing their individual businesses and not the regular employees of person or firm who is running the platform, the Brazilian court added.
