In the past few years, the “gig economy” has ballooned in size to make up around 5m people – or 16 per cent of Britain’s workforce. These are jobs on short term contracts or freelance work, but with few rights or protections. Services are booked through apps or platforms where workers are paid for each piece of work they do, not by time worked, and those workers are in insecure working arrangements.
Most of us have used these services, and increasingly so throughout the pandemic – ordering goods online or ordering takeaways or a cab home. As a Labour MP, I’ve spent plenty of time hearing about and from workers in the gig economy, but I wanted to see first-hand what it means to be in this type of insecure employment.
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