UK parliamentary committee issues report on employment in the ‘gig economy’

The Work and Pensions Committee in the UK Parliament issued a report on the self-employment practices of  ‘gig economy’ companies (such as Uber and Amazon), noting, among others, that ‘the ease with which companies are able to classify their workforces as self-employed both fails to protect workers from exploitation, and potentially increases strain on the welfare state’. To address this issue, the Committee suggests that ‘an assumption of the employment statute of “worker” by default, rather than “self-employed”, would protect both the workers and the public purse’, and that ‘companies wishing to deviate from this would need to present the case for doing so’. The report also calls on the UK government to close the loopholes that incentivise a behaviour in which gig economy companies ‘evade responsibility to their workers’ wellbeing and increase their profits’.