A key tool that enables contractors to trap building services personnel in low-wage work has been upended by a bipartisan majority at the Federal Trade Commission.
fissured workplace
Posted inWorking in America
Amazon Delivery Drivers Sign Union Cards
The e-commerce giant has been ruled a joint employer with its delivery service providers, and now workers are seeking to organize with the Teamsters.
Posted inWorking in America
Minnesota Workers Strike Down Shady Provision That Restricts Their Freedom of Employment
The state banned so-called ‘restrictive covenants’ that make contracted labor agreements harder to break.
Posted inWorking in America
How Amazon’s Outsourcing Facilitates Union Busting
Employees at the company’s Queens warehouse actually work for a third-party subcontractor. This fissured workplace is an obstacle to collective-bargaining rights.
Posted inWorking in America
How Secret ‘Bondage Fees’ Trap Contracted Workers in Low-Wage Jobs
Though the Federal Trade Commission is proposing to ban noncompete agreements, other kinds of restrictive covenants perform a very similar function.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Entrepreneurship, Amazon Style
Creating outside companies for deliveries and freight follows a franchising model that leads to lower wages and captive “independent” business.
Posted inWorking in America
The Warehouse Archipelago
As many as four million workers labor in clusters of warehouses scattered across the United States. Many are mislabeled a ‘temps’; all are poorly paid, and on-the-job injuries are high.
Posted inTAP
Biden and Walsh: To the Rescue of Gig Workers
Today on TAP: David Weil to the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division?
Posted inWorking in America
New Laws for the Fissured Workplace
The pandemic has compelled the government to extend temporary protections to some independent contractors and gig workers, but they need full and permanent coverage.
Posted inWorking in America
Hard Lessons From the Hard Rock Hotel Collapse
In an industry with lax enforcement of safety standards and where the companies in charge are let off the hook, worker deaths are all too common.