Is Gig Work a Job? Uber and Others Are Maneuvering to Shape the Answer

Fucking labor again.

Side hustle. LOFL It's just another example of capitalism at its finest, where the many pay for the few.

Is Gig Work a Job? Uber and Others Are Maneuvering to Shape the Answer

By Noam Scheiber

March 26, 2019

"It was a potentially sweeping proposal from a Texas regulator: Companies that use a “digital network” to dispatch workers the way Uber does could label them contractors rather than employees."

...

"When such companies are able to classify workers as contractors, they don’t have to contribute to unemployment insurance or workers’ compensation, or heed minimum-wage and overtime laws. Industry officials estimate that a work force of employees costs companies 20 to 30 percent more than a work force of contractors — a sum worth many hundreds of millions of dollars per year to Uber."

...

"What is notable about the Texas initiative, which would apply only to unemployment insurance, is that it emerged not from a democratically elected body but from an opaque bureaucracy. There were no hearings where outsiders were questioned, no meaningful floor debates — just a few perfunctory statements at public meetings and a 30-day comment period before the agency could issue a final proposal."

...

"Emails involving one commissioner and her staff show extensive communications with lobbyists working with Tusk Ventures, a venture-capital and political-strategy firm. Tusk, in turn, was retained by Handy, a company that dispatches workers, Uber-style, to perform household chores like cleaning and repairs. The strategy firm’s founder, Bradley Tusk, was once a top political consultant for Uber and remains a large shareholder who could cash out millions in equity when Uber goes public this year."

Read the rest:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/business/economy/gig-economy-lobbying.html?emc=edit_th_190327&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=469281980327

Now you do the math and see who is going to get fucked again. Gig economy my ass. Side hustle bullshit.