Gig Worker Protections Get a Push in European Proposal

Last year, gig economy companies staged a successful referendum campaign in California to keep drivers classified as independent contractors while giving them limited benefits. Although a judge ruled in August that the result violated California’s Constitution, his decision is being appealed, and the companies are pursuing similar legislation in Massachusetts.

The Biden administration has suggested that gig workers should be treated as employees, but it has not taken significant steps to change employment laws. In May, the Labor Department reversed a Trump-era rule that would have made it more difficult to reclassify gig workers in the country as employees.

In Europe, Spain offers a preview of the potential effects of the E.U. proposal. The country’s so-called Riders Law, enacted in August, required food delivery services such as Uber and Deliveroo to reclassify workers as employees, covering an estimated 30,000 workers.

Uber responded by hiring several staffing agencies to hire a fleet of drivers for Uber Eats, a strategy to comply with the law but avoid responsibility for managing thousands of people directly. Deliveroo, which is partly owned by Amazon, abandoned the Spanish market.

The companies prefer policies like those in France, where the government has proposed allowing workers to elect union representation that could negotiate with companies on issues like wages and benefits. Uber also pointed to Italy, where a major union and food delivery companies struck a deal that guarantees a minimum wage, insurance and safety equipment, but does not classify the workers as employees.

Kim van Sparrentak, a Green lawmaker in the European Parliament who helped draft a report on platform workers that was published this year, praised the commission’s proposal as “quite radical.”

“It can set a new standard for workers’ rights,” Ms. Van Sparrentak said.

Adam Satariano reported from London, and Elian Peltier from Brussels. Kate Conger contributed reporting.

AI App Rolls Out www.aiapp.org: Your Single Source for the Foremost Language and Image Synthesis Models

[London, 13 Feb 2024] – AI App is proud to announce the launch of www.aiapp.org, a revolutionary platform that consolidates top-tier Large Language Models (LLMs) and text-to-image models under a single membership. This platform is meticulously designed to provide seamless access to a wide array of advanced AI models, including GPT-4, Google’s Gemini and PaLM […]

Know More

Niche SaaS company wins big with TurboTax $10.5 million dollar Super Bowl ad

By Alex Abagnale Robinson The Super Bowl was last night… it’s Monday morning… and like most people the first thing I do is open up my phone… “What did I miss?” As I’m aimlessly scrolling for the most recent Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift sighting while my coffee brews… I see an interesting post on […]

Know More

From Code to Compassion: AI’s Journey in Deradicalizing Minds

Some people spend a lifetime trying to figure out what they’ve put on this planet to do. Very few people end up meeting the world’s most dangerous terrorist. By Mohammed Abbasi, Co-Director, Association of British Muslims. Website URL: www.mmabbasi.comTwitter: @MohammedAbbasiEmail: mohammed.abbasi@aobm.org When I first saw the email, I visualised I was going to fly to […]

Know More