Uber drivers in Zurich say earnings keep shrinking

Cem Kurun, 30, has been driving for Uber in the canton of Zurich since 2019. Over the years, he says, his working conditions have worsened considerably: fares have kept falling, while competition between private ride-hailing services and taxis has increased. The Covid pandemic and the 2024 entry of Estonian rival Bolt into the Zurich market made things worse, he says.

Kurun recalls once earning around 1,200 francs for about 30 hours of work a week. Today he makes little more than 300 francs. On one occasion, he earned just 70 francs after nine hours of work. He wonders how he could support a family on such earnings, and fears that many drivers are forced to turn to social assistance.

Kurun also says he has little real control over his work, despite formally operating as an independent driver. He suspects the app penalises drivers who turn down too many rides and displays zones promising higher earnings that disappear once drivers arrive. He says that as soon as he sets a price even 10 centimes above Uber's per-kilometre rate, he stops receiving ride requests, which casts doubt on the freedom to set fares that the company promises. Uber says drivers can accept or decline rides without penalty, and that acceptance and cancellation rates are not used to match drivers with passengers or to personalise fares.

Union: "Uber is operating illegally"

For the union UNIA, the degree of control Uber exerts over its drivers is incompatible with genuine independent work. Drivers lack real freedom of choice and must comply with conditions set by Uber, says union spokesperson Philipp Zimmermann. As a result, he says, drivers are denied the wages, expense reimbursements and social security contributions they would be entitled to as employees. Already in 2018, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs had indicated that Uber drivers should be classified as employees, a position later confirmed by cantonal rulings and, in 2023, by the Federal Supreme Court. Zimmermann calls on authorities to put an end to what he describes as an unlawful model.

Uber disputes this interpretation, noting that it has repeatedly changed its operating model and arguing that past rulings concerned contractual arrangements that no longer apply. The company says most drivers value the independence and flexibility its app offers, and that it provides independent partner drivers in Switzerland with free insurance cover against certain risks.

In Geneva, after a years-long legal battle, Uber changed its operating model: most drivers using the platform there are now employed through a third-party company, and Uber reached an agreement with the canton to settle outstanding social security contributions from the earlier period. Asserting one's rights individually remains difficult, however: a former Uber driver in Geneva has had to sue the company to recover wages and expenses he says were never paid; the case is still ongoing.

The dispute extends beyond Switzerland. In the Netherlands, hundreds of thousands of drivers have launched a class action against Uber, while in France a group of drivers, supported by the Geneva-based organisation PersonalData.IO, is preparing a similar action. According to the organisation's founder, Paul-Olivier Dehaye, claimed damages could reach 40,000 euros per driver.

In Zurich, Kurun says nothing has changed despite the 2023 Federal Supreme Court ruling: his working conditions keep deteriorating.