BYPASSING. Uber Technologies is offering more than 70,000 UK drivers extra pay and benefits, after the country’s highest court last month decided they were in fact workers. It sounds like a big deal but may turn out to be a damp squib: Uber hasn’t had to disclose how much the change will increase its costs and says the ruling won’t stop it from turning a profit this year. That’s partly because the UK only accounted for 6.4% of the group’s total taxi gross bookings in the last three months of 2020. Uber’s interpretation of the ruling also helps. The group run by Dara Khosrowshahi will only pay minimum wage from the time drivers accept a ride request, not when they turn on their app. It reckons its drivers already earn 17 pounds per hour, more than the 8.72 pounds per hour minimum wage. And it’s not applying the ruling to its food delivery business at all. The risk for Uber is that it faces a further wave of lawsuits from its workers. (By Karen Kwok)