UK: Trades Union Congress report calls for ban on "dynamic pricing" to protect workers from opaque algorithmic-set earnings
"Dynamic pay on platforms such as Uber should be banned, says TUC,"
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In a report exposing the human cost of the gig economy practice, the Trades Union Congress said pay was becoming decoupled from time, skill or effort. Instead, work had become a speculative practice with the rewards determined by an algorithmic process with little transparency.
Under dynamic pricing, computer-driven algorithms set variable prices on a gig economy platform for customers and rates of commission for workers to match real-time supply and demand in a market.
However, union leaders say the practice replaces fixed rates or transparent tariffs with opaque, constantly shifting pricing mechanisms, where the data used to determine the rewards and decision-making process are largely obscured...
Publishing the testimonies of almost a dozen workers, the TUC found workers describing themselves as “gambling”, “leaving it to fate,” or “waiting for the jackpot,” because pay felt like the outcome of chance rather than work...
An Uber spokesperson said drivers told them they choose the company because it offers flexibility, good earnings and benefits...