Trial Magazine

Humans as a Service: The Promise and Perils of Work in the Gig Economy

Jeremias Prassl
Oxford Unviersity Press
208 pp., $34.95
global.oup.com

Humans as a Service considers whether the gig economy (single projects or tasks for which a worker is hired) truly offers workers freedom, autonomy, and self-determination—which is what platforms such as Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit, and GrubHub claim when trying to shape employment regulations in their favor. Author Jeremias Prassl, a law professor at the University of Oxford, critiques the free-market perspective of the gig economy and provides detailed examples of cases in which employees overcame obstacles and obtained fair pay and benefits such as sick leave.

He also explains why and how ensuring gig workers receive employment law protections is crucial. Although critical of the way the industry operates, Prassl shares an optimistic outlook, writing that “the gig economy has great potential to make everyone better off.” However, he stipulates that the gig economy must abide by employment law standards to ensure equitable conditions for workers and equal competition among businesses.

As Prassl describes, the typical gig worker receives algorithmic ratings submitted after a gig is completed. These ratings must be established and built over time, which means the platform exerts significant control over the worker’s day-to-day activities. This, for example, is common in ridesharing, where the platform’s algorithms determine which driver is offered a ride and the driver’s pay rate. Essentially, algorithms control pay, work opportunity, and whether a worker is terminated. By locking workers into a specific app’s ecosystem, platforms ensure that workers lack bargaining power and mobility while still claiming to offer innovative and flexible job opportunities.

Prassl argues that this, coupled with the highly individualistic nature of gig work, allows platforms to portray their workers as independent contractors, denying them legal protections. He believes that attorneys should be at the center of reshaping this narrative to depict platforms as employers rather than intermediaries and gig workers as employees rather than independent contractors.

The book also includes detailed references to guidelines drafted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, which explain how the industry is widely misclassifying workers as independent contractors. Prassl argues that this misclassification is anything but a novel business model: It’s the reality that workers have faced for centuries.

Kristen A. Lango is the editorial assistant for Trial magazine.