The importance of being worker, or on the United Kingdom Courts dealing with platform work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2421-2695/9610Keywords:
Digital platforms, Gig economy, Platform work, Employment status, UKAbstract
The present article analyses the evolution, indeed still in progress, of two British cases that stand out as paradigmatic examples of the work in the so-called gig economy, i.e. on demand work through platforms: the cases of Uber and Deliveroo.
Although referring to two cases that are currently under discussion at different levels of British jurisdiction (Uber has now reached the Supreme Court, while the Deliveroo judgment is now pending before the London Court of Appeals), the two judgments present at least two points that are relevant to the reader, also an Italian one: first of all, both platforms under consideration have a very similar production model, therefore it seems appropriate to address them together; in addition, both legal questions concern the classification of their status as worker, the intermediate category that British law, at least in the original intentions of the legislator, provides in order to ensure that workers who are not fully subordinated nevertheless enjoy a minimum core of labour protection.
Therefore, both cases are relevant for a validation of the functioning (and the function) of this category.References
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