See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/340583864

What is the Gig Economy?

Article · April 2020

CITATIONS READS

2 5,943

1 author:

Boidurjo Rick Mukhopadhyay

Southampton Solent University
395 PUBLICATIONS   182 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

East and Central Asia: Business and Society View project

Development and Environmental Economics View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Boidurjo Rick Mukhopadhyay on 16 November 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

To cite this article: Mukhopadhyay, B.R. and Mukhopadhyay, B.K. (2020). What is the Gig Economy,
Tripura Times, Editorial, 12th April

To cite this article: Mukhopadhyay, B.R. and Mukhopadhyay, B.K. (2020). What is the Gig
Economy, Tripura Times, Editorial, 12th April

What is the Gig Economy?

Dr. Boidurjo Rick Mukhopadhyay and Prof. (Dr). Bibhas K Mukhopadhyay

Some refers it as the ‘sharing economy’, whose a freelance basis, carrying out short-term jobs
projected growth is around $2.7 trillion by 2025. or contracts, to one or more employers. Some of
The concept of ‘contingent workforce them may rely on a website or app to help them
management’ is nothing new but has been find or organize their gig work, others may
reshaped by the introduction of ‘gig economy’. connect more with word-of-mouth in this
A ‘gig worker’ is someone who is employed on business of reputation.
To cite this article: Mukhopadhyay, B.R. and Mukhopadhyay, B.K. (2020). What is the Gig Economy,
Tripura Times, Editorial, 12th April
Gig economy workers can range
traditional independent contractors
freelancers and temporary staffing
employees who work for selected hours in a
week. A few examples of gig work that use
platform websites are Uber, Swiggy, Zomato
in India similar to TaskRabbit, Lyft in the US,
configuring work to be broken down into
components that allows tasks to be tailored and
allocated as required. Some may use gig work
to supplement the income they receive from a
traditional job.
In the US, research shows that at least one-third
of the total workforce rely on gig economy
work as their primary source of income.
Today, there is as many challenges for SMEs to
recruit part-time workers now as the many
choices available out there for gig workers. The
recent resurgence of the gig economy could be
seen as an extension of this attitude,
supercharged by modern mobile technology –
in particular platforms such as Uber (global),
Alibaba (China) and Deliveroo (UK/EU) which
connect gig workers with willing customers in
exchange for a cut of the proceeds.
The top three rationale for businesses for
engaging ‘non-employee’ freelancers to work
with their internal teams are A) flexibility, B)
access to expertise, C) speed, and D) cost. A
survey by Deloitte in 2014 found that 51% of
executives surveyed expected the use of
contingent talent to increase in the next 3-5
years. Temporary, irregular work ideally fits
those who are looking for extra money on the
side or with ad hoc schedules, while also a big
demographics of the middle class that relies on
gig work, cannot afford instability, and are not
getting fairly paid for the amount of work they
are doing.
For several years straight, state legislatures and
government regulators have sought to apply
from enforcement of employee laws and regulations
to to the gig environment. The risks that gig
firm workers take not only relates to their labour but
also to their own capital. Risk mitigation counts
when continued ownership of the assets used
in work are dependent on a set of
circumstances outside the control of the
worker. For example, Uber or Ola drivers use
their own money, or borrow, to buy their cars.
And, due to circumstances such as A) when the
company changes the amount it pays to drivers
or, B) when the ride-hailing industry
experiences higher competition, C) when the
company gets flooded with new Uber drivers
due to low barriers of entry and also growing
popularity amongst users – they might
‘decommission’ certain drivers either due to
one or more of the above or also for securing
low user ratings – then the driver is burdened
with debt, with no ready means to pay it back.
The platform providers ensure that their
workers are not classified as employees in any
form- thereby freeing them from any liability of
providing entitlements to workers, driving up
their costs. However, the gig ‘employees’ pay
and provide for the physical assets that the
platform relies on to carry out its business.
The key claim of the platform providers is that
their gig workers should be considered
independent contractors, not ‘employees’. The
goodwill accrues to the platform provider,
leaving the worker with fewer options.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Labour (DOL)
established that many workers, depending on
contractual specificities, in the gig economy can
be considered contractors when it comes to
federal wage and hour regulations. Just as gig
working can increase one’s earnings to an
unlimited degree, the opposite can also be true,
as pay can vary drastically, and by no means
has a fixed minimum. Therefore, the ‘feast or
famine’ style of income can be increasingly
 To cite this article: Mukhopadhyay, B.R. and Mukhopadhyay, B.K. (2020). What is the Gig Economy,
Tripura Times, Editorial, 12th April

stressful; this fluctuation in earnings can make
it difficult to save for the future, which is
exacerbated further by not being entitled to any
retirement package or pension contribution.
Then there is the formidable issue of no sick
leave – if gig workers are unable to work, they
simply do not earn.
Self-organisation and self-motivation are two
given requirements for one
entrepreneurial enough to take on a diverse
range of gig work, create a solid reputation,
ensure continuity of orders and therefore
maintain flow of work. In the US, homicide
rates among for-hire drivers are over 20 times
greater than for other workers. The
Occupational Safety and
Administration (OSHA) says the key risk
factors are working alone and in isolated areas,
in high-crime areas, with people under
the influence of alcohol.
Gig economy drivers experience fatigue,
pressure to violate traffic regulations and
distraction from their
Musculoskeletal injuries are also common
among for-hire drivers, including back and
neck injuries from long hours behind the wheel.
Companies that deploy couriers
messengers to pick up and deliver messages,
documents, packages, and other items also
have turned to the gig economy trend of relying
on temporary workers. Besides injury from
physical overexertion or repetitive manual
tasks, there are vehicle accidents, slips and falls,
violence (including bullying and robbery),
there is exposure to extreme
temperatures, and also exposure to improperly
labelled hazardous chemicals.
So far, there has largely been a lack of
protection for injured gig workers as they work
for ‘pay as you go’, ‘work more, get paid more’
principles. There can be certain portable benefit
requirements, including workers’
compensation insurance. Instead of replacing
full-time employment with these fleeting roles,
companies could also think about making full-
time employment more flexible itself, allowing
who is
full employees the freedom to work when and
where they like without the risk of going
hungry or homeless. There are examples where
it works, particularly tech giants and in sports
industry, but other sectors could design similar
initiatives.
Health
Increasingly, some leading global corporations
such as Google, UBER, and Facebook are
beginning to recognise the gig workers as their
‘employees’. Gig economy work, with all its
pros, cons and debates – is exponentially
growing in both India and China as much as it
has been in the US and EU. However, the tact
with which emerging economies manage this
phones.
trend should carefully curb the balance of
externalities on the gig workers and platform
providers. Simultaneously, we need to adapt
our ideas of fixed employment to suit an
and
evolving digital age with a small portion of
the market to work and earn as they wish. A
big percentage of the ‘essential’ gig workers are
currently out of work during the COVID-19
phase and companies need to consider
innovative ways to re-engage these workers
and retain them when ‘normalcy’ (as we know
it) returns.
weather

View publication stats