INTRODUCTION
Is gigging in the digital economy the ultimate freewheeling, laidback working lifestyle or the worst kind of exploitative casualisation? It would seem, from their many attempts to gain access to a better regulated regime, well documented in the case law, that many gig workers tend to the latter rather than the former view. There have been important advances in the common law: in Pimlico Plumbers v Smith the Supreme Court held that a worker’s right under the contract to use a substitute to do their work was not inconsistent with an obligation to provide personal service where the employer imposed stringent limitations on who the substitute could be. Even more significantly, in Uber v Aslam the Supreme Court held that the question of whether someone was a ‘worker’ for the purpose of the statutory definition was primarily a matter of statutory interpretation rather than contractual interpretation and that the statute should be construed purposively, bearing in mind that its purpose was to protect vulnerable workers …
€ (Oxford)
Gwyneth Pitt, ‘The Simple Things You See Are All Complicated’: Thoughts on Deliveroo, Industrial Law Journal. Published: 18 November 2024.
Leave a Reply