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Business Daily: Is the Gig or Sharing Economy Bad for Workers?

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10/09/2015 GMT

Is the Gig or Sharing Economy Bad for Workers?

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Is the Gig or Sharing Economy Bad for Workers?

Are online services like Uber creating entrepreneurs or destroying job security?

Are online services like Uber creating entrepreneurs or destroying job security? Much may depend on the case against Uber that's working its way through the US courts.

More and more of us are part of the gig or sharing economy, where the internet serves as a marketplace matching people who provide a service with others looking to pay for it. But what does this mean for the way we work and for workers' rights? Gianna Palmer reports from the US where drivers have brought a case against the taxi service Uber challenging their employment status with the company. 

Also, David Rolf, president of the SEIU 775 union of care workers in Washington State and Montana, explains why he thinks the gig economy threatens the middle class, the backbone of many economies. And Debbie Wosskow, founder of the British house sharing site Love Home Swap argues we should all welcome the sharing economy, which has the potential to make entrepreneurs of us all.

(Picture: Taxi drivers protest against Uber in Mexico City; Credit: Yuri Cortez/AFP/Getty Images)

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