Why gig work is so hard to regulate

Why gig work is so hard to regulate Getty Policymakers in many nations are trying to reform the gig economy. “It’s logical that platforms that heavily rely on such a model of working with independent contractors, and shifting economic risk to these workers, will try to find ways to kind of evade responsibility of employers.” Overall, platform work regulation has been strongest in Europe, says López. López believes that “this is a weakness of most regulatory initiatives that we see in Europe, because they leave other platform workers – like those, for example, in the care work and domestic services sector, which is also a big sector – mostly unprotected.” In Germany most delivery platforms score above 5 on the Fairwork scale of 1 to 10, which rates platforms according to the research project’s five principles of fairness in pay, conditions, contracts, management and representation. But with worker protests, the involvement of German unions and workers’ councils, and heightened competition for workers, “last year the first two delivery platforms have moved to a permanent contract model”, López explains. Gig workers’ income fluctuated more than traditional workers’ during the pandemic, and only some frontline gig workers could afford to step away from this work due to health concerns.