ABSTRACT
Establishing the correct employment status is important as differing employment protections apply to each category. Establishing the correct employment status is important as differing employment protections apply to each category. For workers, gig work provides flexibility and the opportunity to be their own boss. However, the gig model is fundamentally changing the employer–employee relationship. A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies stated that there was no clear way to decide which jobs were part of the gig economy, ‘but one of the characteristic features is the use of third-party digital platforms’. One of the important issues about this form of working for the study of employment law is that the workers involved, such as those delivering products for Deliveroo or driving minicabs for Uber, have been treated as self-employed. Most people working on zero hours contracts will have worker status but there is the potential for this to develop into employee status.
