Uber, the poster company of the gig economy, has agreed its Australian workers deserve more employee-like conditions. Why it has done this now isn’t too hard to work out.
The Uber model hinders any possibility of drivers acting collectively and generates significant cognitive dissonance among them.
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The use of “gamification” in stock trading and other apps raises new legal challenges. Existing legal tools should be adapted to meet these challenges.
Bike delivery people from the Deliveroo food delivery service gather for a demonstration at Place de la République in Paris in August 2017.
Jacques Demarthon/AFP
A trial in France revealed how the platform’s algorithm established a subordination relationship between riders and the firm. Could we be witnessing the beginning of the end of “uberisation”?
A recent study highlights the precarious world of rideshare and delivery drivers during the pandemic, and their struggle to be heard as non-unionised contractors.
An Instacart worker loads groceries into her car for home delivery. There is a strong argument to be made that gig work is false self-employment, meaning that workers are not actually freelance.
(AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Feudalism has been replaced by capitalism, and the new villeiny — or neo-villeiny — has emerged to reflect a relationship between a worker and an organization.
Gig work is at a greater risk of monopsony than other platforms because of the role platform owners play as regulators and collectors of user data.
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Gig work is entering almost every industry and changing the relationship between workers, employers, service providers and customers. But gig workers face new and unique challenges.
Why have Uber drivers been regarded more favourably than taxi drivers?
Lexi Anderson/Unsplash
Taxi drivers and Uber drivers perform the same work, but Uber’s categorization as a tech company has contributed to the historical stigma against taxi drivers.
Recent layoffs at Bell Media Inc. and Huffington Post Canada have revealed the increasing precarity of journalism work.
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A rise in contract and gig work in professional and creative fields is affecting steady employment. Research shows that to maintain a career in these fields, a worker needs to consider family.
Uber drivers of the App Drivers & Couriers Union celebrate as they listen to a British Supreme Court decision that ruled Uber drivers should be classified as workers and not self-employed contractors.
(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
The British Supreme Court ruling in favour of Uber drivers offers some hope that gig workers, many of them immigrants, might finally be given basic rights. But there’s still lots of work to do.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit freelancers and gig workers hard. Here’s how they can get through the crisis.
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Freelancers who have lost work during the COVID-19 crisis can take steps to ensure they have a successful long-term career in the post-pandemic period.
In this August 2020 photo, travellers request an Uber ride at Los Angeles International Airport.
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Proposition 22 keeps workers for app-based companies like Uber and Lyft classified as independent contractors, but it also reveals deeper problems with contemporary labour markets.
Proposition 22 reverses a 2019 state law.
AP Photo/Richard Vogel
Workers say they love the freedom of platforms like Uber and TaskRabbit but find it hard to earn a livable wage. Cooperatives that give worker-owners a voice in how they are run offer a solution.
With the recession exposing more workers to the vagaries of gig work, it’s more urgent than ever to close the legal loopholes that deny workers employment rights.