FTC Takes Aim at Companies Deceiving and Exploiting Gig Workers – By David Lumb (CNET) / Sept 16, 2022
A brief from the Federal Trade Commission lays out new enforcement priorities to protect gig workers from abuse.
For years gig workers have been shuttling passengers, delivering dinners and shopping for goods, often putting their own safety at risk without getting the benefits full-time employees enjoy. Now the US Federal Trade Commission has clarified its policies for any companies in the gig economy that deceive and exploit their workers.
“Protecting these workers from unfair, deceptive and anticompetitive practices is a priority, and the Federal Trade Commission will use its full authority to do so,” the agency said in a blog post Thursday.
In a 17-page policy statement the FTC explicitly outlined bad company actions and policies, such as how restrictive and nonnegotiable contracts may harm workers by stifling free speech or keeping them from seeking new work while employed, which could violate Section 5 of the FTC Act. The commission also put the gig industry on notice that it will investigate any sign of backdoor agreements between companies to fix wages or other forms of anticompetitive action. And it warned against making “misleading claims about the costs and benefits of gig work.”
