The Gig Economy’s Political Reckoning Has Arrived

Around the globe, it seems like gig work, and gig workers, are everywhere: millions of people deployed, generally for piecemeal tasks, through smartphone apps created by technology startups. Companies such as Uber Technologies Inc. in the U.S. and Deliveroo Plc, based in the U.K., say the arrangement gives workers the freedom to be their own bosses and puts otherwise idle resources to use. A growing number of labor advocates say it’s exploitation in a new wrapper. Courts and legislatures are wrestling with how to fit this phenomenon into existing labor laws, or whether an entirely new approach is needed.

It’s part of a broader trend of what’s sometimes called “fissured” work: People are making money for companies, and being subjected to their rules, without being considered their employees. Some are deemed to be someone else’s employees, like the content moderators who are officially hired by vendors instead of Facebook Inc. or the cashiers who get their paychecks from franchise owners instead of McDonald’s Corp. Others, in industries from trucking to teaching as well as app-based work, are classified by the companies they work for as independent contractors. Such arrangements have a long and contentious history. What’s new is the ability of so-called platform companies to mobilize decentralized workforces in a relationship entirely mediated by their apps.