A London high court judge ruled on Friday that all drivers applying for a minicab or private hire vehicle license must pass a English reading and writing test [Independent report] that includes a 120-word short essay. The case was taken to court by Uber Technologies [corporate website], the ride-share app company, which protested the new language test rules of Transport for London (TFL) [official website], London’s transport authority. Uber, representing the drivers, argued that the language requirement would cause 33,000 drivers to lose their livelihoods and have a “disproportionate impact” on drivers from countries where English was not predominantly spoken and thereby amounts to an “indirect discrimination on grounds of race and nationality.” Judge John Mitting, acknowledged that the requirement could cause 40,000 drivers to either fail the test or be deterred from applying for a private hire vehicle license over a three-year period. Nevertheless, Mitting rejected the argument that the standards were too high and ruled that the requirements were essential for ensuring passenger safety, and raising standards. London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan [official website] applauded the decision stating: “I’m delighted that the courts have today backed my plans to drive up standards and improve passenger safety in London.” However, the lawyer for Uber and the drivers termed the decision as “deeply disappointing” [Guardian report] stating that while Uber has always supported “spoken English” skills, it fails to see the relevance of writing an essay to communicating with passengers or getting them safely from one location to another. Uber has announced its intention to appeal the decision.

Uber has been involved in an increasing number of legal proceedings in the last year. In January, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) [official website] announced [JURIST report] that Uber agreed to pay $20 million to settle a claim that the ride-hailing company had engaged in misleading tactics to recruit new drivers. In December the European wing of Uber was indicted [JURIST report] in Denmark on charges of assisting drivers in their violation of taxi laws, although Copenhagen prosecutor Vibeke Thorkil-Jensen stated that that was just a test case seeking judicial assessment of Uber’s involvement in the illegal acts of two of its drivers. In November a UK employment tribunal ruled [JURIST report] that Uber can no longer treat its drivers as self-employed and must provide certain workers’ rights to its drivers, including minimum wage. In September the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that Uber drivers may not join in a class action suit to pursue employment claims against the transportation company but must resolve their disputes individually. In April Uber reached a settlement [JURIST report] with 385,000 of its drivers in Massachusetts and California in a case surrounding the drivers’ status as independent contractors. The California Labor Commission [official website] ruled [JURIST report] in June 2015 that drivers for the personal transportation service Uber are considered employees, not contractors.