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It’s two weeks before Christmas at Westfield Shopping Center in west London, and the stores are full of staff. Trendy new mattress store Emma Sleep is no exception. But the smiling staff wearing Emma Sleep T-shirts aren’t employed by the retailer. In fact, they are not employed by anyone. They are self-employed freelancers who are hired to perform shifts for the day on an app called Young Ones.
Until now, the growth of the gig economy has been visible and significant. In cities around the world, delivery workers, most likely self-employed, filled the streets with branded jackets and boxy thermal bags. But now, the gig concept is starting to trickle into the brick-and-mortar economy of stores and restaurants. And, as Emma Sleep store manager Suzanne Robinson told me when I stopped by unannounced last week, “It’s actually invisible to the outside world.”
Young Ones is an app founded in the Netherlands that also has a presence in the UK and France, with clients including sportswear stores GymShark and Decathlon. App Temper, also from the Netherlands, is advertising shifts in the UK at retailers such as Uniqlo and cafe chain Colic. The model is simple. Customers post specific shifts at a certain wage rate (the app sets a minimum floor above the national minimum wage), and workers registered on the app can apply for this. Workers and customers give each other ratings at the end of each shift.
What should we think about this development? There are clear benefits for those who do it. On the day I visited, Elena, one of Emma Sleep’s Young Ones gig workers, said she started using the app after getting tired of the hassle of going through multiple interviews and applying for traditional jobs. .
She and her fellow young people seemed like a floating workforce, knowing each other and often working together on different shifts, but not tied to any particular employer. Although she regularly booked shifts at Emma Sleep, she always wanted to try new places. For example, I just saw a shift being advertised that deals with ceramic 3D printing. “It expands your horizons,” she said. “That just creates a lot of opportunities.”
YoungOnes said each freelancer on its platform performs an average of five different roles. On average, people who worked shifts through the company’s app applied to work at 24 companies, Temper said. Workers are usually able to hire someone to take their place if they are unable to work their own shifts.
That said, I’m skeptical of the techno-optimist narrative that this model is or should be the “future of work.” First, because self-employment is typically taxed far less than employment, this would have dire consequences for government revenues and the public services on which they depend.
Next, there is the issue of power. The relationships mediated by these apps may feel flexible and empowering for both parties when workers are in sufficient demand, but in a downturn when many may be chasing the same shifts. What if? Wouldn’t it be encouraging to be evaluated every shift, knowing that that evaluation would also affect your chances of being hired by various other potential companies? Do you think you can stand up for yourself if you think something is dangerous or unfair?
When we communicated this to businesses, Young Ones said that, just as it would for the self-employed, its platform “offers an opportunity to build a strong reputation or risk negative reviews.” . Temper said his company’s system “encourages performance on both sides,” and that clients are typically willing to review freelancers’ profiles “in rounds.”
Britain’s New Labor government wants to empower low-wage workers with a host of new employment rights. However, those rights are only given to those who are employed. On the other hand, technology has reduced the friction of on-boarding employees, placing them just outside the company’s boundaries. And the government increased the economic incentive to do so by increasing national insurance contributions for employers.
Accept this type of gig work and insist on building in special protections for those who do it, or conversely argue that these workers are misclassified and have the same employment rights as everyone else. You could also argue that you should have one. The worst thing to do would be to avoid the issue and allow the laws on the issue to remain messy and poorly enforced. Otherwise, the benefits governments hope to achieve may slip through the cracks as they drive up the cost and complexity of traditional employment.
