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Category:Gig Economy

In SuperShuttle, the Politics of Employment Status Tests Laid Bare

Jul 1, 2019 Matthew Carrieri

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 revise its test of employment status, placing the vaguely defined idea of “entrepreneurial activity” at the center of […]

The Uber/Lyft Drivers’ Association, Unionization, and Labor Law Reform

Jun 25, 2019 Sharon Block and Benjamin Sachs

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 describes is inspirational. Dubal also raises some important criticisms of the IDG, criticisms […]

The Uber/Lyft “Workers’ Association” Debate

Jun 19, 2019 Benjamin Sachs

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 to a company union that would “necessarily impede” the development of fully independent, exclusive-representative unions at the gig firms. Given […]

Exotic Dancers Join the Debate over Dynamex

Jun 17, 2019 Matthew Carrieri

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 wants to classify a worker as an independent contractor must establish each of the following: […]

Questionable Opinion About the Gig Economy

May 8, 2019 Sharon Block

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 Labor Standards Act. This action is significant – it marks the Department’s first articulation of how […]

The Digitalization of Day Labor as Gig Work

May 7, 2019 Veena Dubal

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, inspiring them to use the guise of technology to transform traditional low-wage labor into […]

Law and Politics in Employee Classification

Apr 30, 2019 Benjamin Sachs

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 that these workers are independent contractors. The letter is flawed in multiple ways. As Sharon will explain, deciding a […]

Criminal Background Checks and Disparate Impact: An Argument for Reform

Apr 22, 2019 Joe Ruckert

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 black and Latino—became ineligible for continued employment due to criminal offenses that had previously been overlooked. Amazon […]

Uber’s $100b IPO

Apr 12, 2019 Benjamin Sachs

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. Investors: numbers that end in “million” and “billion.” Travis Kalanick himself made […]

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OnLabor

Law. Workers. Organizing.

OnLabor is a blog devoted to workers, unions, and their politics. We interpret our subject broadly to include the current crisis in the traditional union movement (why union decline is happening and what it means for our society); the new and contested forms of worker organization that are filling the labor union gap; how work ought to be structured and managed; how workers ought to be represented and compensated; and the appropriate role of government — all three branches — in each of these issues.

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In SuperShuttle, the Politics of Employment Status Tests Laid Bare

The Uber/Lyft Drivers’ Association, Unionization, and Labor Law Reform

The Uber/Lyft “Workers’ Association” Debate

Exotic Dancers Join the Debate over Dynamex

Questionable Opinion About the Gig Economy

The Digitalization of Day Labor as Gig Work

Law and Politics in Employee Classification

Criminal Background Checks and Disparate Impact: An Argument for Reform

Uber’s $100b IPO

In California, Legislative Negotiations over the Worker Classification Question Continue