Many vulnerable workers aren’t covered for work-related injuries and illness. Employment law is largely a federal matter while compensation schemes are state-run, but there’s a way to fix the problem.
The 80% of musicians who freelance or are self-employed need to have an array of transferable skills to make a living.
pxhere
It isn’t easy, but musicians build ‘portfolio careers’ by being adaptable, multiskilled and willing to learn, so they can pursue creative work that they believe in.
The Fair Work Ombudsman alleges that food-delivery platform Foodora underpaid three workers.
Shutterstock
That the Fair Work Ombudsman brought a case against Foodora suggests its workers are most likely to be classified as employees. This could dissuade other platforms from offering similar benefits.
The California Supreme Court made it harder to classify workers as independent contractors. But it’s not quite the ‘game changer’ some observers claim it to be.
Online drivers work independently. But to improve their working conditions, drivers need to organise collectively.
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Drivers for online ride-hailing services face several social conditions that may challenge their efforts to transform collective action into a solid union.
Can a company claim intellectual property rights over a conversation between contractors?
AAP
Could an employer or platform claim copyright in a chat group? We’d first have to accept that conversations in a chat group are protected by copyright.
In both Indian and Australian cities, cyclists who deliver goods and services have to take it slow.
Malini Sur
Cycling is a low-cost and non-polluting way to make deliveries in congested cities. Slow cyclists should be recognised as good for the economy and environment, not treated like second-class citizens.
A lack of federal funding for their training, travel or living expenses leaves many elite American athletes juggling day jobs and scrambling to pay their bills.
Congress missed a chance to make it easier for workers who book gigs through big digital companies to do their taxes.
I MAKE PHOTO 17/Shutterstock.com
Companies like Uber and Etsy don’t have to tell most of the people working with them how much they’ve earned. With the federal government so behind the curve, some states are changing their rules.
Many gig workers are classified as independent contractors.
AAP
Many gig workers are classified as independent contractors, leaving them without minimum wages and other workplace protections. Creating a new category of worker could fix that.
‘Fifty Shades’ author E.L. James, shown signing autographs, has earned a fortune from her romance novels.
Reuters/Neil Hall
Hernán Galperin, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Sexism has long been an unfortunate feature of the workplace, but is male privilege still a problem when the gig economy makes most of our office interactions virtual?