The rise of the gig economy is disrupting business models across the globe. Platforms’ digital work intermediation has had a profound impact on traditional conceptions of the employment relationship. ...The completion of ‘tasks’, ‘gigs’, or ‘rides’ in the (digital) crowd fundamentally challenges our understanding of work in modern labour markets: gone are the stable employment relationships between firms and workers, replaced by a world in which everybody can be ‘their own boss’ and enjoy the rewards—and face the risks—of independent businesses. Is this the future of work? What are the benefits and challenges of crowdsourced work? How can we protect consumers and workers without stifling innovation? Humans as a Service provides a detailed account of the growth and operation of gig-economy platforms, and develops a blueprint for solutions to the problems facing on-demand workers, platforms, and their customers. Following a brief introduction to the growth and operation of on-demand platforms across the world, the book scrutinizes competing narratives about ‘gig’ work. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, it explores how claims of ‘disruptive innovation’ and ‘micro-entrepreneurship’ often obscure the realities of precarious work under strict algorithmic surveillance, and the return to a business model that has existed for centuries. Humans as a Service shows how employment law can address many of these problems: gigs, tasks, and rides are work—and should be regulated as such. A concluding chapter demonstrates the broader benefits of a level playing field for consumers, taxpayers, and innovative entrepreneurs.
This important book takes readers behind the closed doors of elite employers to reveal how class affects who gets to the top. Drawing on two hundred interviews across four case studies - television, ...accountancy, architecture, and acting - it explores the complex barriers facing the upwardly mobile.
Making Choices, Making Do is a comparative study of Black
and white working-class women's survival strategies during the
Great Depression. Based on analysis of employment histories and
Depression-era ...interviews of 1,340 women in Chicago, Cleveland,
Philadelphia, and South Bend and letters from domestic workers,
Lois Helmbold discovered that Black women lost work more rapidly
and in greater proportions. The benefits that white women accrued
because of structural racism meant they avoided the utter
destitution that more commonly swallowed their Black peers. When
let go from a job, a white woman was more successful in securing a
less desirable job, while Black women, especially older Black
women, were pushed out of the labor force entirely. Helmbold found
that working-class women practiced the same strategies, but
institutionalized racism in employment, housing, and relief assured
that Black women worked harder, but fared worse. Making
Choices, Making Do strives to fill the gap in the labor
history of women, both Black and white. The book will challenge the
limits of segregated histories and encourage more comparative
analyses.
The paper puts forward an analysis of the effects triggered by two decisions rendered by the Constitutional Court, namely the Decision No 279/2015 and the Decision No 405/2016, in relation to one of ...the suspension of employment cases regulated under Article 52 (1) b) under the Labour Code, which, originally, allowed for the employer to suspend the employment agreement in the event where the latter filed a criminal complaint against the employee for acts incompatible with their position. The conclusion of this analysis is that upon entry into force of the Decision No 279/2015 of the Constitutional Court, which ascertained the unconstitutionality of the provision allowing for the suspension of the employment agreement by the employer in the event where the latter filed a criminal complaint against the employee for acts incompatible with their position, it became mandatory to terminate the effects of the suspension decision, because the legal basis for applying such measure disappeared. Therefore, any ulterior decisions rendered by the Constitutional Court, which decriminalize (in full or partially) a crime for which a criminal complaint was filed against the employee lacks relevance, as Decision No 279/2015 applies with priority.
Talent is the "first resource" for state-owned enterprises to achieve high-quality development. Only by following the law of market economy can we realize the optimal allocation of talent elements ...and play the maximum value. The government has repeatedly stressed that it should not only introduce local talents from regions, but also seek all development talents, use good talents without sticking to one pattern, and gather talents from all over the world. The construction of market-oriented selection and employment mechanism is an important measure to implement the reform of state-owned enterprises. It is of great significance to improving the market-oriented operation mechanism of SOEs, stimulating the development vitality and endogenous impetus of SOEs, and promoting the high-quality development of SOEs. From the perspective of internal and external reform and development situation, this paper analyses the new requirements and challenges of the reform of state-owned enterprises and the market-oriented selection and employment of power grid business, and further clarifies the direction and policy requirements of the construction of the market-oriented selection and employment mechanism. The importance and necessity to promote market-oriented selection and employment mechanism are comprehensively and systematically expounded.