A new report this week from a business and human rights group says Uber and meal delivery service Deliveroo are prime examples of companies in the gig economy that are misclassifying workers in order to cut costs...

The latest annual Corporate Legal Accountability Briefing from the London-based Business & Human Rights Resource Centre states that large gig economy platforms like Uber Technologies Inc. and Deliveroo are mislabeling workers as “independent contractors” rather than employees so that the companies can avoid paying the workers a minimum wage, overtime and sick pay.

A spokesperson for Deliveroo, which is U.K.-based, told Corporate Counsel that the report “is deeply flawed” and failed to consider the flexibility that workers gain by being self-employed. The report ignored many workers’ preference for the flexibility “to decide whether, when and where they work, and that is their number one reason for riding with Deliveroo,” said the speaker, who asked to be identified only as a spokesperson...

San Francisco-based Uber did not respond to requests for comment, but has previously denied misclassifying its workers. General counsel at Uber and its ride-hailing rival, Lyft Inc., have recognized the risk in cases over this labor issue...