Hundreds of Uber drivers go without payment after 'banking glitch'

Hundreds of Uber drivers have not been paid for their journeys this week, leaving them unable to pay essential bills such as rent and fuel.

A banking glitch is said to be responsible for the missed payments, meaning a majority of affected drivers will have to wait until Monday (14 November) before being paid. Some will reportedly have to wait as long as Wednesday.

The taxi-hailing service has apologised for the disruption and said it immediately asked the banks to re-send the payments.

A spokesman for Uber said: "Unfortunately, an error by the bank has meant that payments due by today were delayed to a very small proportion of drivers who use our app.

"We immediately contacted the bank about this and they have already re-initiated the payments to arrive by Monday. We have contacted everybody affected to explain what has happened and offer our sincere apologies."

News of the disruption surfaced after an audio recording of a driver in Scotland pleading with Uber management over his payment was sent to the United Private Hire Drivers (UPHD) union.

In the recording, a man said: "All we ask, when we get asked to do our work and we ask that you pay us [as] you're supposed to.

"You've done nothing to sort it. There are people out here who have got bills to pay. We're incurring charges and what are we supposed to do? Just suck it up and get on with it?"

The UPHD said up to 1,200 drivers were affected in Scotland, and the Guardian reported that a number of English cities outside of London had their payments disrupted.

David Dunn, of the UPHD, said: "This is not a case of missing a net payment to drivers. These are gross payments which must cover all the operating costs drivers have laid out over the previous ten days to transport Uber's customers.

"Many of our members are now saying they don't have the money to keep operating over the busy weekend period due to the missed payroll."

The blunder is the second major embarrassment for Uber in a matter of weeks, after it lost a landmark tribunal ruling which decided that its drivers are not self-employed and thus should be paid the national living wage.