一名等待载客的优步司机，或者被要求睡在客户家里的护工，其睡觉时间算不算“工作时间”？英国最高法院最近对两起这样的案件做出判决。



Is it possible to be “at work” — and so legally owed the minimum wage — while you are asleep in bed? What if you are behind the wheel of an empty Uber waiting to be assigned a passenger? 6park.com
你躺在床上睡觉的时间，有没有可能算作“工作时间”，因而依法应该获得最低工资？如果你是一名正在等待载客的优步(Uber)司机呢？ 6park.com
These questions were at the heart of two recent UK Supreme Court decisions, to which the judges answered “no” and “yes” respectively. The cases don’t just matter for the parties involved. Taken together, they show the law is incoherent and under-enforced on a matter of growing importance: how we define “work” and ensure people are paid fairly for it, even as the boundaries of the workplace and the working day are beginning to dissolve. 6park.com
这些问题处于英国最高法院(Supreme Court of the United Kingdom)最近两项判决的核心，法官们对它们分别给出“否”和“是”的回答。这些案件不仅仅关系到当事人。放在一起看，它们表明，在一个日益重要的问题上——我们如何定义“工作”，并确保人们获得公平的报酬，即便工作场所和“工作日”的界限开始变得模糊——法律存在不协调和执行不力的问题。



In the Uber case, the judges concluded that drivers were “workers” for the time they were logged into the app and available for rides. The judges reasoned that even when waiting around with no one in the car, the drivers were providing a service to Uber. 6park.com
在涉及优步的案件中，法官们得出的结论是，只要司机登录该公司App、准备好接载乘客，他们就是“劳动者”。法官们推定，即使在等待载客、车里暂时没有乘客的时候，司机也在为优步提供一项服务。 6park.com
As one of the lower court judgments argued: “It is essential to Uber’s business to maintain a pool of drivers who can be called upon as and when a demand for driving services arises. The excellent ‘rider experience’ which the organisation seeks to provide depends on its ability to get drivers to passengers as quickly as possible. To be confident of satisfying demand, it must, at any one time, have some of its drivers carrying passengers and some waiting for the opportunity to do so.” 6park.com
正如下级法院的一项判决书所论证的：“对于优步的业务来说，维持一批在需要提供驾驶服务时随叫随到的司机是不可或缺的。该企业寻求提供的卓越的‘乘客体验’，有赖于它有能力让司机尽快赶到乘客所在位置。要有信心满足这样的需求，它必须在任何时候都有一些司机在载客，另一些司机在等待机会这么做。”



In the other case, a care worker employed by Mencap, the charity, was required to sleep at her vulnerable client’s home to “keep a listening ear” out and deal with any emergencies. She was paid far below the minimum wage for these night shifts. But the judges rejected her claim for unpaid wages, citing recommendations from the Low Pay Commission that the minimum wage does not apply to sleep-in workers while they are asleep. 6park.com
在另一起案件中，慈善机构Mencap的一名护工被要求睡在一名脆弱客户家里，以便“随时留意”，随时准备好应对任何紧急情况。她的工资远低于夜班员工的最低工资。但法官们驳回了她追讨未支付工资的主张，依据之一是英国低薪委员会(Low Pay Commission)的建议，即住在雇主家里的员工的睡觉时间不适用最低工资标准。 6park.com
Set side by side, these judgments jar. The care workers have a lot in common with the Uber drivers. They, too, are providing a service to their employer when they do their “sleep-in” night shifts. Not only are they available in emergencies, but the care companies need them to be there to fulfil their contractual obligations to local authorities, which in turn are then able to discharge their statutory obligations. 6park.com
放在一起看，这两项判决是相互矛盾的。护工与优步司机有很多相同之处。他们都需要在“睡着”值班时为雇主提供服务。不仅是为了能够在发生紧急情况的时候当即提供服务，也是因为护理公司需要他们住在客户家里，以履行公司对地方当局的合同义务，而地方当局进而能够履行他们的法定义务。 6park.com
The night shifts also require workers to spend time away from their own home and responsibilities. They might need to arrange and pay for childcare for their children. 6park.com
这类夜班还需要员工在放下自己的家庭和责任的情况下花费时间。他们可能需要为自己的孩子安排看护服务，并为此付费。 6park.com
For Deirdre McCann, a law professor at Durham University, the Uber and Mencap cases are examples of a wider phenomenon: employment practices that “drain waged-time from the working day” so that people are no longer paid or protected by employment law for all the work they do. 6park.com
杜伦大学(Durham University)法学教授迪尔德丽•麦卡恩(Deirdre McCann)认为，优步和Mencap的案件反映了一个更广泛的现象：“付薪时间从工作日流失”的雇佣实践，使人们不再能够为自己所做的全部工作获得报酬或得到就业法律的保护。



The aggressive use of zero-hour contracts is another route by which employers can make sure workers are constantly available without having to pay them during slack times. One contract I have seen between a farm and its seasonal labourers states that while “we are not obligated to provide you with any work under this contract or to provide minimum hours of work on any day or week, you must be ready to work on request”. As more people work from home thanks to the pandemic, the lines between being “at work” and “available” could become blurrier still. 6park.com
激进利用零工合同是另一条途径，让雇主可以既确保员工随时待命，又无需在等待时间向员工支付报酬。我看到过一份农场与其雇用的季节性工人之间的合同，规定“我们没有义务根据本合同为你提供任何工作，也没有义务提供一天或一周的最低工作时数，而你必须随时准备好按照要求投入工作”。随着疫情导致更多人居家办公，“工作时间”与“待命时间”之间的界限可能会变得更加模糊。 6park.com
McCann argues that “working time” should be defined not by the arduousness of the labour, but by the periods when the worker is “at the disposal of the employer”. The purpose, she says, should be to “recognise, compensate, and constrain periods that workers spend away from their families or other dimensions of their lives”. 6park.com
麦卡恩认为，“工作时间”不应该用劳动的艰苦程度来界定，而应该用劳动者“受雇主支配”的时间段来界定。她表示，这样做的目的是“认可、补偿和限制员工放下家庭或其他生活方面的时间段”。



Uber, however, has opted to ignore the Supreme Court’s view on working time. It plans to treat drivers as workers only for the time they are assigned to a trip. It is understandable that Uber wants to avoid a scenario in which drivers could log on at 4am to earn minimum wage for doing nothing. But there are more creative solutions than depriving drivers of pay for the roughly 40 per cent of time they say they spend between trips. 6park.com
然而，优步选择无视英国最高法院关于工作时间的认定。它计划只在员工被安排接载乘客的时间段将其视为员工。可以理解的是，优步希望避免司机凌晨4点登录、什么都不做就能挣得最低工资的情况。但据司机们称，他们要把大约40%的时间花在等待载客上，相比剥夺他们在这些时间的报酬，还有更具创意的解决方案。 6park.com
Mark Graham, a professor at Oxford university’s Internet Institute, said Uber could, for example, top up drivers' pay to reflect the average amount of time they spend between assignments. “That could be one way of dealing with this, but they’re not even acknowledging it,” he said. 6park.com
牛津大学(University of Oxford)互联网研究所(Internet Institute)教授马克•格雷厄姆(Mark Graham)表示，例如，优步可以提高司机薪酬，以反映他们在两次载客间隙平均需要耗费的时间。他表示：“这可能是解决这个问题的一种方法，但他们甚至不承认这一点。” 6park.com
As governments around the world consider how to redraw employment laws for the 21st century, including for care and gig work, they should hold on to a core principle. If employers want to have people at their disposal, they should expect to pay for them. 6park.com
在世界各国政府考虑修订21世纪就业法律（涵盖护理工作和零工合同）之际，他们应该坚持一个核心原则：只要雇主希望劳动者在他们的支配之下，他们就应该准备支付报酬。