For those who have yet to cue in, professional wrestling is fake—the conflicts are fabricated, the fights are choreographed, and the maneuvers are (in theory) designed to prevent injury. Yet, for anyone who has spent even a few minutes watching World Wrestling... More »
Earlier this year, the NLRB decided SuperShuttle DFW, Inc. v. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1338. In that case, the Board determined that a shuttle company’s drivers were correctly classified independent contractors. The Board took that opportunity to revi... More »
In her second post on the Uber/Lyft drivers’ association, Veena Dubal rightly celebrates the success of the recent Uber/Lyft work stoppages. The example of workers, who have no labor or employment law rights, engaging in the kind of collective action that she... More »
Over at Law and Political Economy, Veena Dubal writes an important piece that raises concerns about Uber and Lyft’s suggestion that drivers in California form a “workers’ association.” Dubal worries that such an association would amount... More »
In February, Stormy Daniels published an op-ed arguing that exotic dancers should be “treated as freelancers, not employees.” In doing so, she criticized the California Supreme Court’s adoption of the “ABC test” in Dynamex. Under that test, a business that w... More »
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 »