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In the US many employers restrict the hours that employees can work to avoid paying benefits, is this a likely tack for Uber if they lose the appeals?

by Eridrus 10y ago

rtpg 10y ago
If Uber does this it will only strengthen the "employee" argument, and trigger even more issues for them in my nonlawyerly opinion.
johneth 10y ago
I think it might be quite difficult for them, as some of these rights apply regardless of hours worked: https://www.gov.uk/employment-status/worker https://www.gov.uk/employment-status/worker
- tankenmate 10y ago
  Indeed one of the categorisations that qualifies you as self employed is whether the times you work are dictated to you or whether you set your own work timetable.
  - Eridrus 10y ago
    This would not necessarily dictate the times worked, just the amount. On site like Upwork it is common practice to have people work 10h/week to start so that work product can be evaluated before spending a tonne with a given contractor, or just to be able to keep up and interact at a reasonable pace. That's not really a legal argument, but it is some precedent that controlling the amount of hours worked is not the same as controlling exactly when they are worked.
ubernostrum 10y ago
Anyone in Santa Clara (California), I believe there's a ballot proposition this election to try to do something at the local level (basically, requiring additional work hours to be offered to existing employees first -- pushing them over into full-time status -- before hiring more part-time staff to take the hours).
- kylecordes 10y ago
  That seems like the sort of rule that a government could apply to itself, but very unlikely to successfully change nongovernment company behavior. If governments (city, state, federal, etc.) really want to see part-time versus full-time employees treated more similarly, the way to do that is to reduce the differences between them. Of course this goes straight to the heart of many of our difficulties around all these things: the legacy-of-WW2-wage-controls connection between full-time employment and expensive (health insurance mostly) benefits. If that ever got fixed it would also fix many other things.

In the US many employers restrict the hours that employees can work to avoid paying benefits, is this a likely tack for Uber if they lose the appeals?

by Eridrus 10y ago

In the US many employers restrict the hours that employees can work to avoid paying benefits, is this a likely tack for Uber if they lose the appeals?

rtpg 10y ago

If Uber does this it will only strengthen the "employee" argument, and trigger even more issues for them in my nonlawyerly opinion.

johneth 10y ago

I think it might be quite difficult for them, as some of these rights apply regardless of hours worked: https://www.gov.uk/employment-status/worker https://www.gov.uk/employment-status/worker

tankenmate 10y ago
Indeed one of the categorisations that qualifies you as self employed is whether the times you work are dictated to you or whether you set your own work timetable.
- Eridrus 10y ago
  This would not necessarily dictate the times worked, just the amount. On site like Upwork it is common practice to have people work 10h/week to start so that work product can be evaluated before spending a tonne with a given contractor, or just to be able to keep up and interact at a reasonable pace. That's not really a legal argument, but it is some precedent that controlling the amount of hours worked is not the same as controlling exactly when they are worked.

ubernostrum 10y ago

Anyone in Santa Clara (California), I believe there's a ballot proposition this election to try to do something at the local level (basically, requiring additional work hours to be offered to existing employees first -- pushing them over into full-time status -- before hiring more part-time staff to take the hours).

kylecordes 10y ago
That seems like the sort of rule that a government could apply to itself, but very unlikely to successfully change nongovernment company behavior. If governments (city, state, federal, etc.) really want to see part-time versus full-time employees treated more similarly, the way to do that is to reduce the differences between them. Of course this goes straight to the heart of many of our difficulties around all these things: the legacy-of-WW2-wage-controls connection between full-time employment and expensive (health insurance mostly) benefits. If that ever got fixed it would also fix many other things.