TRANSPORT CHIEFS should regulate Uber fares and force the pseudo-taxi firm to offer drivers basic employment rights, a new report has said.

The dossier, published yesterday by the Labour MP Frank Field, accuses the firm of Victorian-style “sweated labour” and says the company should set up an emergency helpline for underpaid drivers.

General union GMB recently won a case on behalf of two drivers for the app-based cab firm at employment tribunal. The panel ruled that the pair were workers and should thus be entitled to both minimum wage and employment rights.

Mr Field’s report, written with his researcher Andrew Forsey, suggests the union movement should “craft for itself a role in smoothing drivers’ incomes over the course of each financial year” and set up a new ethical co-operative to compete with Uber.

Mr Field and Mr Forsey spoke to dozens of drivers, some of whom told horror stories about their conditions.

“London streets have become so congested with Uber drivers that it has become a nightmare to earn money. I am working six or seven days a week reaching up to 100 hours,” one driver said.

“I feel I have no choice because the level of jobs coming in has decreased so much due to new drivers joining.”

Another said: “Being self-employed means you decide how and when you’re gonna work. In this business there is no such thing, as invisible chains [force] you to play by their rules.”