As OnLabor covered last week (here and here), the Department of Labor recently issued an “opinion letter” finding that the workers deriving income from an unnamed “virtual marketplace company” are independent contractors and not employees covered by the Fair L... More »
With the so-called “uberization” of work, any number of gig companies may be deserving of “the most scandalous” award. Perhaps the dubious honor should go to Uber itself which has sparked the imagination of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs the world over... More »
As has been widely reported, the U.S. Department of Labor issued an “opinion letter” yesterday concluding that an unnamed “virtual marketplace company” does not employ the workers who make the company viable. Instead, the letter finds t... More »
Amazon is currently defending itself in a class action alleging racial discrimination. In 2016, the company implemented a stricter background check policy for subcontracted delivery drivers. As a result of the change, several existing drivers—many of whom were... More »
David Streitfeld has a great story in the NYT this morning about life as an Uber driver and the vast distance between what drivers earn and what investors will reap from the firm’s public offering. Drivers: $40,000 in a good year of full time work. Inves... More »
As OnLabor reported last month, in the wake of the California Supreme Court’s ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc., the California State Legislature is considering several bills this session that would address the question of how to determine whether a work... More »
Recently in the United States, in response to the emergence of “gig economy,” the debate whether gig workers are misclassified as independent contractors has been heated. Japan’s practice with regard to the definition of employee could give meaningful insight... More »
It’s no surprise that gig-economy companies are careful to avoid disclosing just how little their independent contractors make on the job. So when one Instacart worker tweeted a receipt of his earnings that showed Instacart paying him a measly $.80 cents for a... More »
Last spring, the California Supreme Court sent shockwaves through the gig economy with its ruling in Dynamex Operations West, Inc., in which it held that the so-called ABC test is the appropriate one for determining whether a worker is an independent contracto... More »
New York City’s new minimum payments rule for drivers in the ride-hailing sector is sorely needed, and is in many ways a policy model for cities around the country. The City ought to perfect this path-breaking policy by ensuring that it does not advantage domi... More »
The employment status of Uber drivers has, to date, been considered in two Australian cases. In both cases, the Fair Work Commission (Australia’s national workplace relations tribunal), concluded that the drivers were independent contractors and thereby ineli... More »
For the discriminatory loss of early retirement benefits, the New York State Nurses Association has won a $20.8 million-dollar settlement from New York City. The city repeatedly denied requests from the Assoc. to classify nursing as a “physically taxing” job,... More »