The National Employment Law Project called for protecting the rights of “on-demand” workers at online staffing and services firms such as Uber, Task Rabbit or online staffing firms such as Wonolo. The organization made its case in a new report last week.

NELP’s report argued many workers in the on-demand, or gig, economy are employees and not independent contractors as claimed by the firms.

“At its core, their business is to dispatch workers who provide services to consumers and businesses,” the report said. “The use of online platforms to broker work should not insulate businesses from employer status, nor do the artificial labels these businesses attach to their workers define the employment relationship.”

Rights and protections for workers called for in the report include:

• Rights on job: minimum wage and protections to guard against misuse of company-held data.
• Social insurance protections: Businesses in the on-demand economy should not get a free pass on making Social Security, Medicare, workers’ comp and unemployment insurance. Earned leave and supplemental retirement savings should also go to on-demand workers.
• Broad and equitable access to technology.

“Workers who use the platforms to get work are led to believe they have no entitlement to social protections and benefits tied to employment. Instead, they are saddled with an annual self-employment tax (currently 15.3%) along with their income taxes, and with figuring out complex self-employment tax deductions and credits,” according to the report. “At the same time, many of these companies take a sizeable commission — up to 20% percent or even 25% — from the workers’ pay.”

It also claims on-demand companies retain significant control over workers despite labeling them independent contractors. “The transportation company Lyft performs background and driving tests on its drivers, inspects their vehicles, instructs them how to greet passengers (‘with a big smile and a fist bump’), establishes their rates, regulates the number of drivers on the road at any given time, and retains the right to terminate them ‘at any time, for any or no reason, without explanation,’ according to news reports and company statements quoted in court documents," the report said.

NELP also cites growth in the on-demand economy referring to a McKinsey & Company estimate that online staffing could add $2.7 trillion to global GDP by 2025 along with 72 million full-time equivalent positions.

Authors of the NELP report are Rebecca Smith & Sarah Leberstein. The report comes shortly after a federal judge in California certified as a class action a case by Uber drivers who claim the ride app misclassified them as independent contractors.