The California Supreme Court on Thursday ruled unanimously that drivers for app-based companies including Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash will remain independent contractors, as opposed to employees. The decision, upholding a state ballot measure called Proposition 22, was considered a major victory for the gig-economy companies. The question of whether those …
Read More »Europe to End Robo-Firing in Major Gig Economy Overhaul
Platform workers can no longer be fired automatically by algorithms, according to new European Union rules agreed today in a sweeping reform of the gig economy that will affect Uber drivers and Deliveroo couriers. “Now we have a proper system, which is something that doesn't exist anywhere else around the …
Read More »A Damning Report Claims the Union That Defeated Uber Had a Culture of Abuse and Toxicity
A trade union that won a landmark case against Uber in the UK’s Supreme Court had a “culture of abuse and toxicity,” with an internal power struggle threatening to paralyze its operations, according to a damning independent report obtained by WIRED. The report into the App Drivers and Couriers Union, …
Read More »The EU Wants to Fix Gig Work. Uber Has Its Own Ideas
A small group of protesters stand on the side of a roundabout opposite Brussels’ oak-framed Europa building, which is glowing in the dark. Despite the heavy rain, the group is here to direct their anger at the politicians, who are inside, deciding the future of Europe’s gig economy. In case …
Read More »Underage Workers Are Training AI
Like most kids his age, 15-year-old Hassan spent a lot of time online. Before the pandemic, he liked playing football with local kids in his hometown of Burewala in the Punjab region of Pakistan. But Covid lockdowns made him something of a recluse, attached to his mobile phone. “I just …
Read More »Millions of Workers Are Training AI Models for Pennies
In 2016, Oskarina Fuentes got a tip from a friend that seemed too good to be true. Her life in Venezuela had become a struggle: Inflation had hit 800 percent under President Nicolás Maduro, and the 26-year-old Fuentes had no stable job and was balancing multiple side hustles to survive. …
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