Workers’ rights need more protection in the gig economy | Letters
Rafael Behr's commentary on Matthew Taylor's "gig economy" report is too kind by half (The gig economy can be exploitative - but there is no easy path to Good Work, 12 July). Both in the report and in interviews, Taylor seems more concerned to preserve the gig economy business model than worried about the resultant exploitation. The business owners' excuse, that they couldn't run their business otherwise, is exactly the same old excuse used right back to the slave owners.
If the only way the business model can work is by denying workers' rights, rights hard-won by generations of struggle, then that flawed model has no place in any kind of decent, fair society. The Orwellian rebranding of the workers' title "dependent contractors", or some such nonsense, should tell you all you need to know about how flawed Taylor's proposals are. It really is that simple.
Simon Diggins
Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire