A working group examining recent proposals to regulate “gig work”, with speakers from Seattle, New York and London, U.K., presenting on three recent legislative proposals to regulate gig workers.
The event is jointly convened by the Centre for Comparative Research in Law and Political Economy, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University and the Centre for Labour Management Relations, Ryerson University.
The meeting will be two round table discussions following brief introductions of the topics. See below for the full tentative agenda.
Purpose
The purpose of the workshop is to hear about three recently approaches to regulating gig workers, from each of London, New York and Seattle, in order to understand the issues and options, in light of the recent Canadian federal and provincial (Ontario) policy reviews whose purpose is to propose new models to regulate gig workers.
Background
Gig work – and more broadly, precarious work, and worker misclassification – are the signature labour market policy issues of 2021. Gig work or platform economies are by now well-established phenomena around the globe. They are characterized by both technological innovation and “disruption” of traditional services, and by recognizable and traditional forms of work – such as piece work or project-based work. While gig work has been celebrated as “flexible” work serving workers’ choices, it is also characterized by familiar conditions of precarious work – racialized workforces, low wages, no or low benefits, and costs and risks borne by workers, not employers.
Gig workers and trade unions have sought to clarify the status of gig workers as employees, as opposed to independent contractors, for the purpose of workplace regulation for several years. Although decision-making bodies have produced some mixed results, more recently, gig workers are increasingly found by decision-makers to be employees, or, in some cases a “third category” of worker – that is, workers will less than the rights of full employees, but greater than independent contractors.
The prominence of these individual cases and wider workers’ struggles has become a policy question for governments around the world. With the implementation of “AB5” in California, and subsequent response of the gig economy companies resulting in Proposition 22, Uber and other gig economy companies have sought to engage state and local governments in the U.S., Canada and around the world in an effort to legislate workplace regulations applicable to gig workers (and thereby resolve outstanding disputes before decision-making bodies).
Most recently, in Ontario the government has established a new commission to examine the phenomenon of “gig work”. This commission does not include any stakeholders from trade unions or the labour movement.
The goal of the preliminary workshop is to build a clearer understanding of:
- the content of proposals that have been made jointly by trade union and gig companies in the US and UK that would regulate gig workers;
- the context and rational for those proposals, and the expected outcome of their implementation; and
- alternative issues and options for proposals to regulate gig workers in Ontario.
Date: Wednesday, July 14, 2021, 0900 - 1200