Self-employed workers: has the “gig” economy reached its limits?
A Deliveroo delivery boy cycling through the streets of London on March 31, 2021. REUTERS - TOBY MELVILLE
Text by: Anne Verdaguer
5 mins
The "gig economy" is shaken by new upheavals.
The deliverers of Deliveroo, the food delivery platform, are once again called on strike in the United Kingdom.
Since its official entry on the London Stock Exchange, Deliveroo has multiplied its setbacks.
Its stock fell 26% from the first day of listing.
In question: the controversy around the remuneration and working conditions of its delivery people.
Publicity
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"
Floperoo"
is the term coined by financial analysts for this
nightmarish
IPO
of the Deliveroo share on March 31, 2021. Several heavyweights in asset management have even refused to participate in the operation.
This stock market disappointment is not a huge surprise, given the increasingly deleterious social context that reigns around these digital platforms which grant very little - or not at all - social protection to their workers.
An economic model which has yet to prove itself and which was built around an
easy and precarious workforce
.
For Christian Dufour, sociologist and specialist in labor law, decades of social progress have been thrown away, and these platforms offer a real mirror to the larks for these young people:
“
These workers are below the poverty line and do not have the means to protect themselves against what we call the risks of life: that is to say mainly health, but also unemployment, and let's not talk about old-age insurance which is non-existent!
What is ultimately sold to them is an illusion, and they accept it because they cannot do otherwise while keeping the idea that they are self-employed workers, which they are not at all.
"
► Also to listen: Deliveroo delivery men: rebellion on two wheels
The Uber company forced by French justice to recognize a former driver as an employee
According to the International Labor Office, the typical profile of these workers is that of a young man with little education, whose average age is 33 and who barely earns a living.
The working days are sometimes more than 12 hours, and their wages are on average 4.50 euros per hour, according to the unions.
Demand has exploded for home delivery since the start of the health crisis.
Enough to make these
second-line workers
more visible.
Their status is being challenged in courts in several countries, forcing the industry giants to adapt.
This was the case for Uber in France from 2020: the Court of Cassation recognized the existence of a
link of subordination between the platform and one of its former drivers
who obtained the status of employee.
Isabelle Pontal, lawyer in employment law at FTMS, deciphers:
“
The Court of Cassation considered that a link of subordination united the driver to his platform because he cannot develop his own clientele, or take other passengers during the race.
The driver cannot decide on the race either because the platform tells him to go to such and such a place to pick up a particular passenger.
The platform also controls the activity of the drivers because after three refusals, it has the right to deactivate the account.
They are also geolocated.
"
Unemployment remains a springboard for uberization
Another victory in Spain, where the status of employee was also recognized for the deliverers of Deliveroo and UberEats.
Companies will have to contribute for their workers, who will benefit from social protection.
Do
these court decisions mark the beginning of the end of the
uberization of the economy
?
►
To read also
: in Spain, home deliverers will be “presumed” employees, a European first
Not so sure, because in California, Proposition 22 which enshrines the independent status of drivers was approved at 58% by referendum last November.
And according to sociologist Christian Dufour, as long as the structural problem of unemployment is not resolved, nothing will change: “
The labor market, which is getting worse, means that you have a mass of employees, an army of maneuvers available for platforms of this type are set up and subtly use a favorable legal system with, in France, the status of auto-entrepreneur, or the 0-hour contract in Great Britain.
If we're lucky, it works, and then you cover the market.
"
The European Commission launched a consultation of the social partners on February 24.
So that these task workers finally come out of this in-between, between self-employed and salaried workers, without ever seeing the advantages of either.
► Read also: Uber grants British drivers the status of salaried worker
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