Business News
Long working hours pile strain on Uber, Careem drivers
Jun
Dubai: For two years, Uber driver Mukesh sat in his white Lexus transporting passengers around Dubai for upwards of 20 hours a day. He was desperate to pay for the home he was building for the family back in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Then his body began to break down. Mukesh, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, was diagnosed with a number of ailments that put him at a higher risk of heart attack and stroke. He was told to immediately reduce the number of hours he drove his car a day, or face potentially irreversible damage to his health.
Now, he works 12 hours a day. But while Mukesh says he has since realised the stark dangers of working long hours, some drivers still clock in way above the legal limit, in desperate pursuit of financial gain. Living away from their families and without the disposable income for a social life, drivers often choose to work dangerously long days.
Commission-based contracts
Many say they eke out an existence within their car, typically with dreams of saving enough money to eventually return home one day. This problem is endemic to both Uber and Careem, according to interviews with more than a dozen drivers, UAE employment lawyers and road safety experts.
The problem at the moment is the policing of this [law]. It’s not being policed adequately enough.
According to these individuals, this is what results from a system of commission-based contracts that fuel longer working hours, coupled with a lack of oversight and enforcement, and companies eager to avoid responsibility.
Employees should only work a maximum of eight hours a day as laid out in the federal labour code, said Omar Al Nuaimi, assistant under-secretary at the UAE Ministry of Labour, in a statement.
But while the law is clear, it is not being sufficiently monitored or enforced, many argue. “The problem at the moment is the policing of this [law]. It’s not being policed adequately enough,” said Shiraz Sethi, regional managing partner and head of employment at DWF, a law firm. Sethi argues that workers in many industries felt obliged to work illegal hours for fear of losing their jobs if they didn’t comply.
“They’ve got really no choice,” he said. “Their bosses don’t care what the law says … and they have to accept it if they want a job.”
Uber and Careem claimed to have little influence over how many hours individuals worked when contacted by Gulf News, given that neither company directly employs any drivers. They declined to provide any details related to the number of accidents that had occurred involving drivers working on their platforms at the time.
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Both firms act as middlemen, allowing drivers employed by private limousine firms to use their apps to find passengers. In return, they take a commission equivalent to around 20 per cent of the total fare.
In a statement, Uber said the responsibility for driver welfare lied squarely with such limousine companies. “Drivers who use the Uber app in the UAE are employed by limousine companies that have full visibility on working hours and bear responsibility for ensuring drivers are operating lawfully,” a spokesperson for Uber said.
We have to fight for a law here that regulates the maximum number of driving hours.
A number of prominent limousine companies who employ as many as 500 drivers each declined to speak to Gulf News for this piece. The Road and Transport Authority (RTA) — which oversees the granting of licenses to limousine companies — also declined to comment, referring questions to the labour ministry.
What the law states
Legally, experts said, the limousine companies that employ the drivers are liable for them working within the 12-hour work limit, not Careem or Uber. But while the legal liability may rest with the limousine companies, the reputational risk sits firmly with Uber and Careem, said Thomas Edelmann, managing director of Road Safety UAE, an advocacy group.
“If an Uber or Careem driver has a fatal accident involving a pedestrian, no one will know which limousine company employed him,” Edelmann said. “People will just remember that the accident involved an Uber or Careem driver.”
The brand visibility of the two ride-hailing companies is such that few are aware that neither actually employ any of their own drivers in the UAE. Experts argue that this ambiguous chain of responsibility, and lack of oversight by a regulator, has led to a vacuum in which drivers are able to work as many hours as they want despite the dangers.
One solution is to force three drivers to share a single vehicle, working in shifts of eight hours each. However, while limousine companies continue to turn a blind eye to the law, safety advocates, lawyers, and drivers argue, temporary fixes can never be truly effective.
Edelmann called for greater oversight of the industry, and stricter measures to protect drivers. “We have to fight for a law here that regulates the maximum number of driving hours for all commercial drivers,” he said, adding: “There is an urgent need to have legislation in place.”
Edelmann dismissed the 12-hour limit on commercial drivers as “just too much”, arguing that they should work eight-hour days like other industries. Changes to the UAE’s employment system are necessary, lawyers say, highlighted by its failure to protect the most vulnerable members of society. When the UAE Labour Law was enacted in 1980, working practices were very different to what most employees and employers are familiar with today, said Ben Brown, legal director on Clyde & Co’s regional employment team.
“Flexible working arrangements and long working hours are now commonplace and so it would be helpful if the UAE Labour Law was formally amended to reflect the realities of the modern workplace,” Brown added.
Sethi said that regulators should be stricter in policing companies. He argued that employees should also have access to a platform where they can whistleblow on employers who are forcing them to work more extremely long hours.
“When I ask clients why they would work like that when it’s contrary to the labour law, they just tell me that their boss doesn’t care.”
Legal help for workers/drivers
UAE Labour Ministry makes it clear where the law stands on working hours
The law on working hours is “clear”, according to the UAE’s Ministry of Labour. Eight hours a day — or 48 hours a week — is the standard contractual agreement.
Over the last two years, we have been assessing the impact of new technologies on the labour market as part of our focus on the future of work.
“We will investigate any violations that are brought to our attention,” a ministry spokesperson said.
“Businesses that can impact public safety have a particular duty of care to ensure that their workers are complying with the law, and should not be offering incentives to encourage significant overwork,” said Omar Al Nuaimi, assistant under-secretary at the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, in a statement to Gulf News.
He warned that the ministry, which is responsible for all labour matters, “will investigate any violations that are brought to our attention”.
Limousine companies directly hire drivers
The faceless limousine companies that Uber and Careem use for their fleets of cars typically hire drivers with the promise of an assured salary, only to later introduce steep commission targets that incentivise extremely long hours, according to one Dubai-based employment lawyer. This assurance of a salary is often given simply to appease the labour ministry who will only grant a visa to someone who can show they are guaranteed to earn a certain level of income, the lawyer said.
Once the visa is granted, it is not uncommon for the employer to deviate from this arrangement, entering in to a second, more informal, contract between the company and the driver. It may be more difficult for the driver to assert their rights in this instance, the lawyer said.
These arrangements take on a number of forms. One driver Gulf News spoke to said he paid a flat daily rate of Dh250 to the limousine company to lease his car, and then was allowed to keep any money he made from fares, less the commission paid to Uber or Careem.
Some, however, said they were paid on a commission basis, with huge targets that needed to be hit to receive any money at the end of the month.
This commission system, the lawyer argued, encouraged drivers to work longer hours, often at risk to themselves, their passengers, and others on the road.
Under-secretary Al Nuaimi acknowledged that new technologies like Uber and Careem were changing the way that people worked, and the government was keen to understand the mechanics behind these shifts. “Over the last two years, we have been assessing the impact of new technologies on the labour market as part of our focus on the future of work,” he said.
“This is a priority area for the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, and we remain committed to engaging with companies to ensure that our policies enable flexibility while continuing to maintain high standards for workers.”