What's going on?

Uber reclassified all 70,000 of its UK drivers as �workers� on Wednesday, in hopes it might finally get picked up from the airport next time it visits London.

What does this mean?

After losing a tough court battle last month, Uber was forced to treat the 25 drivers who brought the case as �workers� � that is, just shy of full employee status � rather than freelancers. Now, though, it�s gone the whole hog and decided to reclassify all of its UK drivers, which entitles them to minimum wage, vacation pay, and pension payments. The ride-hailing company didn�t say how much those added benefits would hurt its bottom line, but it did promise not to raise fares or to tweak its profitability forecasts for the rest of the year.

Why should I care?

Zooming out: Uber�s troubles might just be starting.

Uber may have lost the legal battle, but it still has a war on its hands. Even now, the company will still only pay its drivers once they�ve accepted trips and not for the time in between � which amounts to roughly a third of their working day. But since last month�s ruling dictated that those 25 drivers are working from when they log in to the app to when they log off, the rest might now come after the same treatment.

The bigger picture: There�s a post-pandemic future to think about.

Uber�s ride-hailing has � for obvious reasons � struggled during the pandemic, but at least it had its food delivery business to pick up the slack. Of course, that dynamic might shift when restaurants reopen their doors and manage their own deliveries. That�s not a problem for Just Eat Takeaway.com, which has focused more on acting as an online marketplace than actually delivering the food � and become a favorite for big-name takeout chains as a result.