Welcome to our Corporate Legal Accountability Quarterly Bulletin -- highlighting a specific topic each quarter, as well as key developments in corporate legal accountability...

Quarterly highlight: Accountability for Misclassification of Workers in the Gig Economy

...While on-demand work arrangements serve an important function for people who prefer flexible working hours or locations, as opposed to the rigidity of full-time employment, they raise important concerns regarding the rights and protections of workers.
 
Conventional employment is typically characterized by secure, regular work, and the provision of legally mandated benefits and protections, including a minimum wage, workers’ compensation, paid leave and overtime, unemployment insurance and the right to collectively bargain. By comparison, labour laws do not afford these same protections to independent contractors...

As a result of this protection gap, an increasing number of non-conventional workers are asserting their core labour rights in courtrooms, suing employers to redress grievances and improve working conditions...

Though the specific claims of the various lawsuits differ, they all revolve around the issue of determining exactly what, or who, is considered an employee according to the law. When alleging misclassification, plaintiffs need to demonstrate that they meet the legal criteria for classification as an employee...