A Muslim private hire driver says he and thousands of others in the capital will not be able to keep their pensions with Uber as they do not offer a ‘Sharia’ compliant scheme. In September 2021, Uber launched a pension scheme for drivers, following a Supreme Court ruling that deemed them ‘workers’ rather than independent contractors.
It was the first of its kind – but has now come under fire for ‘excluding’ the majority-Muslim workforce as there is no Sharia compliant scheme for drivers to choose from. Islamic finance rules restrict investments in certain industries which are deemed to be unethical, including alcohol, tobacco, gambling, weapons and the finance sector itself. Now a drivers’ union is taking the gig economy firm to court for ‘discriminating’ against its workforce.
Abdurzak Hadi, Chair of the London Drivers Branch of the App Drivers & Couriers Union, told MyLondon : “I took the pension with Uber, otherwise I’d lose out. But I wrote to Uber in January saying they need to do something about it. They said they’d pass it to the relevant team. A lot of drivers have refused to take the pension. They don’t want their money invested in gambling or the sex industry.”
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“Uber was meant to backdate the pension money…
