'Dependent Contractors' in the Gig Economy: A Comparative Approach

57 Pages Posted: 8 Oct 2016 Last revised: 10 Feb 2020

See all articles by Miriam A. Cherry

Miriam A. Cherry

St. John’s University - School of Law

Antonio Aloisi

IE University - IE Law School

Date Written: October 22, 2016

Abstract

Lawsuits around the misclassification of workers in the on-demand economy have ballooned in the United States in recent years. That is because employee status is the gateway to many substantive legal rights. In response, some commentators have proposed an in-between hybrid category just for for the gig economy. However, such an intermediate category is not new. In fact, it has existed in many countries for decades, producing successful results in some, and misadventure in others. We use a comparative approach to analyze the experiences of Canada, Italy, and Spain with the intermediate category. In Italy, the quasi-subordinate category created an opportunity for arbitrage that resulted in less worker protection. The end result was confusion and, since 2015, the third category is extremely limited and the presumption is one of employee status. Spain’s third category (the TRADE) was only made available to a small percentage of self-employed workers because of the burdensome nature of its regulations and the high dependency threshold required for inclusion. As for Canada, the practical result of the “dependent contractor” category was to expand the definition of employee and to bring more workers under the ambit of labour law protection. We ultimately conclude that workable proposals for a third category must also encompass other forms of precarious employment. Working within the existing framework, one solution would be to change the default presumptions regarding the two categories that already exist. Above a minimum threshold of hours worked or income earned, the default rule would be an employment relationship for most gig workers, except those that may fit into a “safe harbor” for de minimis amateurs or volunteers.

Keywords: on-demand economy, dependent contractor, third category, labour law, employment law, Italy, Canada, Spain

Suggested Citation

Cherry, Miriam A. and Aloisi, Antonio, 'Dependent Contractors' in the Gig Economy: A Comparative Approach (October 22, 2016). 66 American Univ. L. Rev. 635 (2017), Saint Louis U. Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2016-15, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2847869 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2847869

Miriam A. Cherry

St. John’s University - School of Law ( email )

United States

Antonio Aloisi (Contact Author)

IE University - IE Law School ( email )

Madrid
Spain

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