Independent drivers are at the core of the unsustainable Uber business model

Uber is taking steps to improve its work culture, but its business model is still ‘absolutely unsustainable’, said Mark MacGann, the whistleblower who revealed the illegal lobbying of the digital ride-hailing company. The British Guardian and French Le Monde reported in July that Uber Technologies violated laws and secretly lobbied politicians as part of aggressive efforts to expand into new markets from 2013 to 2017, Reuters notes.

Irishman Mark MacGann led Uber’s lobbying activities that were intended to secure political support for the company and revealed in July that he was the one who provided journalists with over 124,000 of its documents.

– I decided to speak out because I believe that Uber knowingly violated laws and misled people about the benefits its business model offers to drivers – he said.

– We are not and will not justify past behavior that is clearly not in line with our current values – Uber stated in response to media reports at that time.

At the Web Summit in Lisbon, MacGann told Uber on Wednesday that its current model is ‘absolutely unsustainable’, despite improvements. Uber recently reiterated that independent drivers are at the core of its business model since everyone wants the status of self-employed and everyone wants flexibility, MacGann quotes.

The facts contradict that stance, he emphasized, reminding that some Uber drivers are suing the company in multiple countries ‘to obtain the minimum of social protection, such as paid sick leave’.

Uber’s current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and his executive team ‘have done a lot of good things, but there is still a lot, a lot of work ahead of them’, MacGann concluded. When asked for a comment, an Uber spokesperson referred on Wednesday to a piece Khosrowshahi wrote for the New York Times in 2020, stating that the ‘current employment system is outdated and unfair’.

Workers want flexibility and labor rights, the head of Uber asserted, concluding that new laws are needed to help them in this regard.

– I propose that companies in the gig economy be required to establish benefit funds that will pay workers cash for benefits at their discretion, such as health insurance or paid time off – he wrote.

Workers in the gig economy model would lose the flexibility they currently have if they became full-time workers with rights, and rides would become more expensive, Khosrowshahi wrote.