Your commercial news round-up: Deliveroo, OpenAI, Jeremy Hunt, government borrowing

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It’s a big week for LawCareers.Net as we head off to Manchester for LawCareersNetLIVE. As we’re fully immersing ourselves in event organisation mode, this week’s round-up is a short one. But don’t worry, we’re still covering all the top stories.  

• First up, the UK Supreme Court has ruled Deliveroo riders can’t be recognised as workers in an employment relationship or be represented by trade unions. This means: 
  • riders are free to reject offers of work; and 
  • riders can work for competitors.  

This landmark decision was made unanimously on Wednesday, seven years after the case was originally brought forward by the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain.  
 

• Sam Altman is back as CEO of OpenAI. If you’ve not followed the news in recent days, you’d be forgiven for thinking he was always CEO, but Altman was fired last Friday over what the board described as a failure to be “candid in his communications”. Following Altman’s dismissal nearly all of OpenAI’s 750 staff quit – it was suspected they’d follow Altman to Microsoft after he was hired there on Monday. Altman has now returned to OpenAI on the condition that the board be dismissed. Their replacements are yet to be confirmed. 
   
• The UK government borrowed a whopping £14.9 billion this October, confirming an increased pressure on public services. Total borrowings for the year until October sit at £98.3 billion, which is less than predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility; however, it’s still £21.9 billion more than the same period of time last year. Jeremy Hunt said his autumn statement would look to “get people back into work to deliver the growth our country needs”. 
   
• Following on from our previous story, Jeremy Hunt has delivered his autumn statement. Here are the key takeaways: 
  • National insurance will be cut by 2% from January. 
  • People with mobility and mental health problems will have their benefits cut by £4,680 a year if they don’t find a way to work from home. 
  • Tax on alcohol will be frozen until 1 August 2024. 
  • £450 million will be allocated to local authority housing funds to create 2,400 new homes. 

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