Work that does not provide a dignified livelihood, autonomy, safety or fulfilment has no place in our economy. Yet, in Europe millions of people are trapped in platform economy jobs that offer none of these things.
Uber has led the exploitation of platform workers. As the biggest platform work company, it has been able to roll out its business model by
In doing so, Uber has paved the way for other platform companies to follow in their exploitative footsteps.
At the core of Uber’s exploitation model lies the concept of fictitious self-employment. By hiring drivers and riders as self-employed, rather than having them on their payroll, Uber avoids paying taxes and social security contributions, leaving workers without any social protection and denying basic work rights such as minimum wages and sick pay.
As if this was not horrible enough, the pay is so low that platform workers exhaust their bodies by working over 60-hour weeks just to try to make ends meet. And managed by black box algorithms, they are constantly tracked, monitored and have decisions taken over them without knowing exactly how or why. Workers are even fired for the most obscene reasons without any explanation.
In December the European Parliament adopted its proposal for rules that should strengthen platform workers’ rights. But Uber’s multimillion euro lobbying machine has managed to put many politicians on their side that have succeeded to put the proposal to another vote in order to weaken these rules. We need to make sure that fairness prevails and our voices are heard against exploitation.
Do not forget: this is not only about the 28 million European platform workers. This is about all of us. Any job can be turned into a platform job, stripping us from our rights and autonomy. We cannot let this happen, people must always come before profit.
#UberExploits
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