{"id":9044,"date":"2017-10-06T15:12:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T11:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=9044"},"modified":"2017-10-06T15:12:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T11:12:00","slug":"uber-and-mr-uddin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/uber-and-mr-uddin\/","title":{"rendered":"Uber and Mr Uddin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr Uddin is one of around 40,000 Uber drivers in London, who are worried about their future employment prospects following TfL\u2019s decision not to renew Uber\u2019s licence<\/em>\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you think Uber will close?\u201d asked Mr Uddin, a worried 52-year-old British Bangladeshi Uber driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just heard on my car radio that more than 600,000 people have signed a petition against its closure and the number is growing all the time,\u201d I replied, in an attempt to provide him with some moral support. \u201cMy guess is that although the [London] Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has said he backs TfL\u2019s [Transport for London] decision not to renew Uber\u2019s licence, with that number of people campaigning against closure he will be very keen find a way to solve the problem and continue to let Uber operate. I mean that\u2019s what politicians who want to get re-elected do \u2013 they respond to popular opinion, don\u2019t they?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Uddin, a first-generation migrant from Sylhet, who lives in a council flat in Bethnal Green in the heart of the UK\u2019s most populous Bangladeshi community, nodded appreciatively at my reply but it was obvious from his facial expression that he remained concerned about his future employment prospects, especially the likely effects on his wife and four children if he could no longer work.<\/p>\n

In fact, Mr Uddin is one of around 40,000 Uber drivers in the UK capital, serving an estimated 3.5 million users of the app-driven service. It\u2019s evident that many of the company\u2019s drivers in London\u00a0come from\u00a0ethnic minority backgrounds, and that most have little in the way of formal educational qualifications that would smooth their way into other parts of the UK\u2019s increasingly digital economy. Indeed, with employment as waiters or kitchen staff in the once buoyant\u00a0Bangladeshi-dominated \u201cIndian\u201d restaurant trade\u00a0becoming increasingly scarce, there are few alternative job opportunities for middle-aged Bangladeshi men such as Mr Uddin.<\/p>\n

Sadiq Khan, the most powerful Labour politician in the land, undoubtedly has a delicate balancing act to perform. The son of working-class Pakistani immigrants who became a human rights lawyer, he will know very well the social and economic background and circumstances of the vast majority of Uber drivers, as well as the displeasure of millions of relatively and very affluent, predominantly Labour-backing users, of the service in London.<\/p>\n

Little wonder that once he sniffed the way the political wind was blowing he said: \u201cI have every sympathy with Uber drivers and customers, affected by this decision but their anger really should be directed at Uber. They have let down their drivers and customers by failing, in the view of TfL, to act as a fit and proper operator.\u201d He added, being careful to reinforce his position as a champion of social and economic \u201copenness\u201d in the capital: \u201cI suspect it will take some time before this situation with Uber fully plays out.\u00a0In the meantime, I will continue to help support innovative businesses in London and to create a vibrant and safe taxi and private hire market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bangladeshi-born\u00a0Iqbal Wahhab, owner of\u00a0Roast restaurant\u00a0in Borough Market and a former chair of the Department of Work and Pensions Ethnic Minority Advisory Group,\u00a0reminded TfL\u00a0in an\u00a0article for the International Business Times\u00a0that it has a legal duty not to discriminate against\u00a0ethnic minority groups. He added: \u201cIf they are able to win their appeal, Uber will have to rigorously clean up its conduct and be fit to serve London better. But by having put fear of economic uncertainty into 40,000 households yesterday, City Hall could also more rigorously interrogate all its responsibilities \u2013 not just to those who are highly vocal but also to those who are quietly marginalized and trying to enter the mainstream economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in Mr Uddin\u2019s living room I hear about what entering the mainstream economy by working for Uber entails. \u201cI work nights \u2013 about five or six hours on average,\u201d he says. \u201cIt suits me. And the people like Uber \u2013 it\u2019s much less expensive than calling a black cab.\u201d Before he goes out for his night shift, his wife always makes him a black coffee. \u201cThen I feel strong,\u201d he says, flexing his arms. \u201cIt means I can work without feeling tired. If someone wants me to take them on a long journey, say, to Birmingham [around 100 miles] it\u2019s not a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some sort of compromise between Uber and TfL around employment rights and passenger safety needs to be hammered out quickly. For sure, it would be a great shame for all concerned if Mr Uddin never again drove a passenger to Birmingham.<\/p>\n

Dr Sean Carey is honorary senior research fellow in the School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester<\/em><\/p>\n

a<\/em> version of this article was also published at anthropologyworks.com<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*\u00a0 Published in print edition on 6 October 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr Uddin is one of around 40,000 Uber drivers in London, who are worried about their future employment prospects following TfL\u2019s decision not to renew Uber\u2019s licence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":9088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,27],"tags":[5961,5960,5959,2924,5958,5957],"class_list":["post-9044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-society","tag-department-of-work-and-pensions-ethnic-minority-advisory-group","tag-iqbal-wahhab","tag-mayor-sadiq-khan","tag-sean-carey","tag-transport-for-london","tag-uber"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Uber.jpg?fit=1100%2C592&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-2lS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}