The Association moderated an in-depth discussion, featuring speakers from the U.K. and France, on emerging labor legal and policy trends and the challenges they pose for the gig economy and contingent workers in Europe and the United States.
“This is an issue that is moving quickly and is going to affect all companies significantly,” said HR Policy COO Henry Eickelberg, teeing up the discussion. All speakers noted the inherent challenges in crafting effective legislation and policies that adequately cover the “grey area” between a full-time employee and an independent contractor.
Vince Toman of Lewis Silken LLP offered insight into developments in the UK. Toman traced the legal history of worker classification issues there and emphasized that when determining employee status, courts focus on how the worker operates in practice rather than the language of the relationship with an employer. Toman also noted the problems in determining whom a worker is working for at any particular time and how this affects their independent contractor status, noting that “80 percent of gig workers [in the UK] have permanent employment elsewhere.”
Charles de Froment of Pergamon offered the French perspective, noting the public initially strongly supported the gig economy with lawmakers quickly establishing rights and protections for contingent workers. Recent court decisions, however, including a highly controversial decision in which the French high court found an Uber driver to be an employee, have thrown into sharp relief the disconnect between the law and the practical realities of independent workers. De Froment emphasized the need for a proper definition of independent contractors and universal basic social rights for all independent workers.
HR Policy Chief Economist and Vice President Mark Wilson noted “the situation is a complete mess in the United States.” HR Policy Senior Labor and Employment Counsel Roger King similarly noted the frustrating disconnect between federal and state law and policy for the gig economy, and identified labor unions, progressive policy groups, and the plaintiffs’ bar all as significant stakeholders in the fight to increase the scope of employee status under American labor law.
The road ahead: BEERG Executive Director Tom Hayes closed the discussion by emphasizing the need for an open dialogue between leading companies and lawmakers across Europe and the United Sates, and stressing that a “one size fits all approach” is impractical for regulating the gig economy and contingent workers. “We [companies and trade associations] need to be flexible and have to position ourselves as leading the dialogue,” said Hayes. “We can’t repress entrepreneurialism by forcing the patterns of the past.”