Brexit would be better for UK workers, Boris Johnson promised. But will it?
The European Commission’s plans to protect people in precarious jobs in the gig economy could be the most ambitious extension of workers’ rights from Brussels since Britain left the EU.
If adopted, the plans would mean that gig economy companies, such as Uber and Deliveroo, would have to treat workers as employees with minimum wages (where they exist), sick pay, holidays and better accident insurance, unless they could prove that drivers and couriers were genuinely self-employed.
Workers would also get greater protection against management by algorithm, which would mean they cannot be denied work or fired by a machine whose code is wrapped in secrecy.
The British government will have no hand in making these rules, nor any obligation to apply them. That, after all, was the point of Brexit. Yet British policymakers and firms operating in the UK may find it hard to avoid the gravitational pull from Brussels.
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