As long as Uber driver count isn’t artificially constrained with $500,000 “medallions”.
How do sick days and benefits calculate when “employees” are free to work as few or as many hours as they want? What happens if an “employee” chooses to drive more than 40 hours in a week or 8 hours in a day?
It still seems like there needs to be a new classification for “gig economy” workers. They’re neither normal employees nor are they independent contractors. It’s definitely something new.
$500,000 medallions seems to be a US 'innovation'.
Sick days and benefits will be calculated pro rata just like they are for people who work part time. It's not a hard system to create considering most companies have to do it already. There will be a contract that specifies that if you work a 40 hour week you get his much and if you work less you get that fraction of it. I would guess the contract would specify that overages don't accumulate more benefits but that's up to Uber to write into their contract.
The gig economy are exactly that, normal workers. Just because your work doesn't have regular hours doesn't mean we need an entirely new classification system.
What if I work a 60 or 80 hour work week? Do I accumulate sick days faster? What about states that mandate 1.5x pay for every hour over 40 in a week or every hour over 8 in a day? Can I force minimum wage waiting around at 5am in areas with insufficient passengers?
There are no companies that "have to do it already" where employees also have complete and total control over the number of hours they work and in what location they work.
> Can I force minimum wage waiting around at 5am in areas with insufficient passengers?
In the EU, legally, yes, as long as Uber's stance is that if you are logged into the app, you are available for work and must accept fares. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Time_Directive_2003: "The SIMAP judgment defined all time when the worker was required to be present on site as actual working hours, for the purposes of work and rest calculations. The Jaeger judgment confirmed that this was the case even if workers could sleep when their services were not required."
Will Uber actually pay you minimum wage if you try this? No, they will fire you. Or they will implement a special mode in their app saying "thank you for trying to log in, but your services are currently not needed, so we won't let you".
Just because you aren't aware of the many many very detailed rules in this area, that doesn't mean that there are no rules.
If you read my original comment you'd see that the contract would specify whether you accumulate sick days faster or there is a cut off at a 40 hour week. The only they they need is to ensure that employees accumulate sick days at the rate mandated by law.
Again if the law mandates that then they have to pay that. They are free to implement something in their app to stop you working more than 40 hours a week if they want to.
Yes there are companies where you can choose your shift. There are companies where you choose where you work. I'm sure there are companies that allow both already. Also just because you do something new doesn't mean you suddenly don't have to follow the law. I can't say I'm the only company that allows employees to work from wherever they want as long as they wear a propeller hats therefore I don't have to provide sick pay.
Do people that sell things on Amazon need to be provided benefits from Amazon? How about AirBnB hosts — should that company provide sick days? How is an independent person with a car selling a transportation product any different than someone selling widgets through Amazon? Perhaps the difference is that Uber sets prices?
I would offer that a free market solution to Uber is to allow drivers to set their own rates — that would result in a far more efficient market. Taxis ought to be able to set their own rates as well. It’s better than this price floor/ceiling situation we have now.
> Do people that sell things on Amazon need to be provided benefits from Amazon?
No, they're not working for Amazon. And if they're selling large amounts of things regularly, the local equivalent of IRS will kindly remind them that they should be doing it as a business.
> How about AirBnB hosts — should that company provide sick days?
No. But hosts putting their property on AirBnB regularly should also comply with appropriate regulations, which most likely will involve them registering as a business.
> How is an independent person with a car selling a transportation product any different than someone selling widgets through Amazon?
Same as above. Drop someone off to work in exchange for fuel money? Nobody cares. Start behaving like a transportation service, and the government will want you to register as a transportation service business.
One of the many tricks Uber tried to pull off is Schrödinger's employment - the drivers are to be independent contractors when it comes to liabilities and the taxman, but otherwise the drivers are to be like employees. But, as Uber is discovering, you really can't have it both ways.
Yes you've identified the key difference which is one of the tests used in UK courts to determine if someone is really a contractor or actually a disguised employee and ability to set price matters.
If Uber did let drivers set price then it wouldn't be facing these issues and would just be an arbitrage marketplace. Of course if they did that their prices wouldn't be low and they wouldn't be as popular since currently they subsidise pricing.
The gig economy is for people who can decide how much to work, rather than accept how much to work. What you seem to be asking for is merely a functioning social safety net ("benefits"). If you want the government to mandate such things then just get the government to provide them and be done with it.
They’re neither normal employees nor are they independent contractors
They are perfectly well covered by the existing laws, they are simply part time shift workers. But they are employees for tax and benefits purposes. That's the bit that Uber are trying to dodge.
Sure there is. You can choose to not enter based on existing terms. You can try to negotiate and be told no. That's how most open contracts work, including contract to hire firms in US Finance.
In many (if not all EU countries) in order to be considered contractors they have to show there is no single entity that provides the contracts/money.
That prevents companies from hiring their own employees as contractors and avoiding paying social tax or ensuring annual vacation, etc.
As stated earlier Uber have been banned already in some EU countries altogether unless they choose to register as taxi business and comply with the local (country/municipality) regulations.
The claim is unsubstantiated: "...has 50,000 drivers across the country, most of whom work exclusively for Uber." [0]
I very much doubt that drivers would be employed in a regular taxi company while taking Uber calls at the same time.
How do sick days and benefits calculate when “employees” are free to work as few or as many hours as they want? What happens if an “employee” chooses to drive more than 40 hours in a week or 8 hours in a day?
It still seems like there needs to be a new classification for “gig economy” workers. They’re neither normal employees nor are they independent contractors. It’s definitely something new.