Uber, TaskRabbit and Co: platforms as employers? rethinking the legal analysis of crowdwork

One of the key assumptions underpinning the rise of ‘crowdsourced work’ – from transport apps including Uber to online platforms such as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk – is the assertion put forward by most platforms that crowdworkers are self-employed, independent contractors. As a result, individuals might find themselves without recourse to worker-protective norms, from minimum wage and working time law to health and safety regulations and unfair dismissal protection. But is this account accurate? In this paper, we hope to challenge prevailing assumptions, arguing that in certain scenarios crowdworkers can, and should, be classified as workers within the scope of domestic employment law. The approach proposed, however, is an initially counterintuitive one: we advocate the adoption of a functional concept of the employer as a regulatory solution to crowdwork employment, with platforms, crowdworkers, and service users each shouldering their appropriate share of employer responsibilitie

Soziale Sicherheit für Crowdworker_innen? Zu Regulierungsproblemen am Beispiel der Alterssicherung für Selbstständige

Bei der Debatte um soziale (Alters-)Sicherung für Solo-Selbstständige wurde bisher noch nicht ausdrücklich nach den Bedingungen des Versicherungsschutzes neuartiger, digitaler Beschäftigungsformen wie dem Crowdworking gefragt. Dabei sind die Crowdworker_innen aufgrund der besonderen Arbeitskonstellation über bzw. auf Plattformen in besonderer Weise schutzbedürftig, ohne dass sie aber von den bisherigen auf wirtschaftliche Abhängigkeit fokussierten Einbeziehungstatbeständen des Rentenversicherungsrechts erfasst wären. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird daher das spezifische Schutzbedürfnis der digitalen Beschäftigten herausgearbeitet und nach möglichen rechtlichen Anknüpfungspunkten für Regulierungsansätze gesucht. Zentrale Forderung ist die Einbeziehung der verantwortlichen Plattformen in die Beitragspflicht.   Social Security for Crowdworkers? Regulatory Problems – Using the Example of old-age Security of Freelancers The present debate on the social security and specially the old-age security of solo self-employed people, who aren’t compulsorily insured, has to be broadened by the legal und actual conditions for insurance protection of noval and digital forms of gainful employment. Crowdworking is paradigmatic for these ongoing changes. Interactive digital platforms coordinate these “self-employed“ working processes. Based on that hybridity beyond markets and organizations crowdworkers similar to employees are in need for protection. In this paper I explore possible models of protection against the background of the interaction practices of crowdworking. I argue for a new protection and regulatory concept, which considers the particular and significant role of platforms. JEL-Klassifizierung: K31, J23, J26, J5