In 2016-17 I spent six months working in the gig economy researching a book. As part of the process I drove a taxi for Uber, during which time I found that the company were requiring drivers to accept jobs when it was not necessarily financially beneficial to do so (with the threat of sanction if they didn’t). Uber also closely monitored the customer ratings of their drivers and prescribed several topics we were not allowed to talk about with our passengers.
Those who work in other areas of the gig economy such as bicycle couriering have spoken of similar requirements to work set shift patterns, despite being nominally self-employed. This has at times been accompanied with the threat of no longer being able to work for a particular company if jobs are turned down by the courier.
Considering that self-employed contractors have sacrificed their workers’ entitlements such as holiday pay and the right to a minimum wage under the guise of autonomy and flexibility, it is galling to hear stories of gig companies continuing to tightly control workers. As a consequence the latter often experience the worst of both worlds: a loss of employment rights and little in the way of autonomy or flexibility.
We welcome the recognition that, in developing the test for the new “dependent contractor” status, the degree of control exercised by employers is set to be given greater weight. This is of particular importance to workers in the gig economy, who are often tightly controlled in their tasks and yet are classified as “self-employed contractors” by the companies that they effectively work for.
James Bloodworth Author of Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain and 1,000 others including Cathy Neill Rider, Deliveroo, Shabbir Mirchi Uber driver in London, Ian Wilson Delivery rider, Uber, Michael Hoyle Self-employed/full-time, Amazon Flex/Stericycle, Zaffar Ahmed Flex independent contractor driver, Amazon, Petty Vundla Carer, self-employed, Alison McGovern MP Labour, Wirral South
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