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R_www.japantimes.co.jp_tech 2015 00194.txt.txt

#haring economysurge raises labor questions for those using services such as Uber, Taskrabbit They drive for Uber, deliver groceries for Instacart, run errands for Taskrabbit, and rent spare rooms on Airbnb. Are these the new, empowered participants in the haring economy, or workers being exploited by well-funded technology companies? That is an open question as millions of people shift from traditional employment to freelance igwork, giving them more independence, but without the social safety net of employees. Some 18 million U s. workers now earn a significant portion or all of their income outside of traditional employment, and another 12.5 million took on part-time independent work, according to MBO Partners, a firm providing services for independent contractors. A separate study by financial software group Intuit found 25 to 30 percent of the U s. workforce is ontingentand that 80 percent of large corporations plan to increase their use of a lexible workforcein coming years. Inuit said that by 2020 more than 40 percent of the labor force will be ontingent. ut cracks have begun to appear in the model developed by Uber and other peer-to-peer services. Lawsuits in several jurisdictions argue that on-demand workers are not independent contractors, but employees entitled to unemployment insurance, workers compensation and other benefits. hese firms have ignored the issue because they view themselves as a marketplace, not as an employer, and now it is biting them in the back, said MBO founder and chief executive Gene Zaino. Politicians are taking notice. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said recently she would rack down on bosses who exploit employees by misclassifying them as contractors.?This on-demand, or so-called gig economy is creating exciting economies and unleashing innovation, she said in June. ut it is also raising hard questions about workplace protections and what a good job will look like in the future. et without a flexible workforce of independent contractors, he sharing economy could be stopped in its tracks, said Christopher Koopman, a research fellow at George Mason University Mercatus Center. e would not see the dynamic, innovative environment we have said today. oopman those choosing to work on these platforms re getting a ton of flexibility, so there are trade-offs. They can work when they want and how they want. ut he acknowledged that policymakers need to set clear rules to avoid disputes and uncertainty. This uncertainty led to the shutdown in July of Homejoy, an online platform for home cleaning services which faced litigation from workers claiming they should be classified as employees. Some analysts say current laws are adapted not to these new models where people earn money through shopping services like Postmates, meal preparation like Feastly and pet-sitting like Dogvacay. Simon Rothman at venture capital firm Greylock Partners says a key to helping this thriving sector is nbundlingbenefits such as health care insurance and retirement from the workplace. one are the days of a social contract with employers for lifetime employment it an old model, it doesn exist anymore. This is a secular shift that will impact everyone, Rothman said in a blog post. Rothman said this new sector is likely to be worth some $10 billion in the United states this year, and if allowed to grow, ffers a viable new path to sustaining the middle class. ut Robert Reich, a former U s. labor secretary who is now a University of California professor of public policy, argues the trend is taking us back in time before most countries enacted labor standards. he new on-demand work shifts risks entirely onto workers, and eliminates minimal standards completely, Reich said on his blog about the hare the scraps economy.?In effect, on-demand work is a reversion to the piece work of the 19th century when workers had no power and no legal rights, took all the risks, and worked all hours for almost nothing. BO Partners founder Gene Zaino said however that his firm research shows most people who become independent are did happy they so. t consistently about control and flexibilityof work, Zaino said. Zaino said that t not so much about the money, but noted that he fastest growing segment is people earning over $100, 000 a year. his $100, 000-plus group has grown 45 percent over the last five years, totaling 2. 9 million people, according to MBO. Arun Sundararajan, who heads New york University Social Cities Initiative, said policymakers should seek to ecoupletraditional benefits from the workplace to help gig workers. hat they are looking for is not to be a full-time employee, Sundararajan said. hey want the nice things of being a full-time employee income stability, insurance benefits, which have been tied to employment. ne solution is enacted a model in the United states for retirement, which allowed most employers to eliminate defined-benefit pension plans in favor of portable savings, known as 401k plans, with tax incentives and contributions from employers and workers. his could be a good template, the NYU professor said. e have to think about similar structures for the other aspects of the social safety net. undararajan said finding solutions is key to unlocking the potential for a vibrant new economic sector. here are different kinds of work that are productive, but we are still thinking in a 20th-century mindset, he said. Zaino said it will take time for new policies ecause there are so many competing interestsand that the private sector will have to sort out the issues probably by adding money to gig workers to allow them to get benefits. whole new industry is being born where we are helping people get those types of benefits and services individually and have them portable, he said i

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