Trust me, many are happy in the gig economy
THE trade body for Britain’s burgeoning ‘gig economy’ is planning a fresh push for its code of conduct in an attempt to improve public trust in controversial online businesses.
Richard Laughton, chairman of Sharing Economy UK, said he wants to open up the trade body’s new TrustSeal to more applicants.
TrustSeal – which already has eight members, including Airbnb – sets out a set of principles for businesses to follow.
The initiative follows criticism over the way companies in the gig or sharing economy – where customers link up with providers over an internet platform – have treated some of their workers.
Laughton – who is also chief executive of easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s peer-to-peer sharing business easyCar Club – said: ‘I recognise there have been specific issues around the way people interact with certain platforms, particularly when selling their time.
‘But the general trend I think has still been that the sector has been growing and providing great opportunities for people.’
Last week, Addison Lee became the latest company to face an employment tribunal over its treatment of ‘gig workers’.
A judge ruled that a bicycle courier should not be classed as an independent contractor without rights to holiday pay or the national minimum wage.
Dave Chaplin, founder of Contractor Calculator, which provides online advice to freelancers and contractors, said: ‘Whilst the gig economy is great in some circumstances, firms should not be misclassifying workers in contrived ways to avoid their duties as employers and give these workers rights.’
Airbnb is the most high-profile firm to have been granted TrustSeal status. Others include ticket exchange Stubhub, pet-sitting and travel website TrustedHousesitters and rental firm HiyaCar.
Laughton said: ‘Most of the people who work on these platforms are very happy with the amount of flexibility that they have. For most of them it’s not their main form of income so it’s clearly things that people are doing in addition to the work that they already have.
‘And of course, the likes of Airbnb and easyCar Club are letting people make use of under-utilised assets.
‘That is contributing to more money in individuals’ pockets and helping people to, for instance, stay in homes or pay bills that otherwise they might have struggled with.’
Laughton said that analysis by PwC suggested that the sector had grown from £7.5billion in 2015 to £20billion this year.
He said of TrustSeal: ‘We’ve set out a series of principles we think businesses in the sharing economy should adhere to – things like data protection, security around systems, security of payment, verification of identity and more operational things like clarity of communication between both the platform and the people using it.
‘We’ll be opening up the next round of applications very shortly.’
Last month, the Taylor Review into new working practices proposed a new ‘dependent contractor’ status to cover the likes of Uber drivers and Deliveroo riders and give them rights such as sick pay.
The independent review by Matthew Taylor, a former aide to Tony Blair, also suggested firms should be required to show that a person can earn 20 per cent more than the minimum wage and that the Low Pay Commission should oversee pay rates for dependent contractors.
Chaplin said: ‘It’s important to distinguish between low-skilled, low-paid workers in the gig economy who are vulnerable to exploitation, and highly skilled, well-remunerated professionals who have actively chosen to freelance over a salaried employment.’