Uber Drivers and Employment Status in the Gig Economy: Should Corporate Social Responsibility Tip the Scales?

As the gig economy continues to grow, the legal status of its workers remains a source of confusion and controversy. Uber and other transportation network companies (TNCs) typically disclaim employee status, depriving drivers of social insurance among other benefits. Further, such companies typically deny liability to third party victims for damages due to auto accidents, sexual assaults, and other negative outcomes arising out of their business. Legal and regulatory systems in the U.S. and elsewhere continue to struggle with how to determine and apply a consistent standard as to employee classification. We argue that corporate social responsibility should figure prominently in the equation. Private companies already are required to cover social costs of doing business in a variety of contexts (e.g., workers compensation, family leave, public and workplace accommodations for disabled individuals), and it makes sense that they also should be required to underwrite other important implications associated with employee status as part of their responsibilities to society. This is especially so where, as with Uber and other TNCs, a company’s core profit-making operations include activities that carry the direct potential for causing substantial harm both to individual clients and to the public at large.