As gig economy booms, accountability is harder to pinpoint
The rapid growth of the gig economy has led to lapses in vetting and accountability has become less apparent. Traditionally, employers actively address issues and, when necessary, tragedy. But under the new rules of the gig economy, it is unclear where responsibility lies.
“With the gig economy, the social safety net is being pulled apart more rapidly than I think at any other point in time,” explains Craig Peters, a partner at San Francisco-based Altair Law and expert in cases involving injury or death. “If you separate the corporation from the worker by instituting this fiction that they are an independent contractor, they do not have to worry about vetting anymore, because they are not going to get sued.”