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Emeritus Prof Christopher May

A new way for capitalists to skim off money from workers.... the gig economy ap YoungOnes charges retail workers nearly 5% of their pay if they want to be paid immediately, less if they wait 3 days or nothing if they can wait a month.... lets be clear this is the workers money!!!

The immorality of the gig economy just beggars belief - as I've said before there is no 'technology revolution' behind the gig economy, just a new method to exploit & abuse workers!

theguardian.com/business/2025/

The Guardian · ‘So immoral’: gig economy workers charged fee to get paid quickerBy Tom Wall

@ChrisMayLA6 That app name is cheeky. The Young Ones would have had a wild time with YoungOnes as source material.

@ChrisMayLA6 When I worked non-gig economy jobs in the non-profit sector I always had to wait at least two weeks to be paid. Even though it was my money. There never was an option to be paid immediately or in 3 days.

(And I'm not saying that there isn't exploitation and abuse of workers, because there is.)

@Bodling

Ah, yes but in the gig economy each shift is treated almost as an independent contract; so its not as if you're swapping delay fro continued employment....

@ChrisMayLA6 I seriously wonder if these amoral gits are simply trawling early industrial history for every forgotten ripoff scheme? There’s little new under the sun.

@ChrisMayLA6 wouldn't be surprised to see the resurgence of Tommy notes and company shops. They long ago repealed the Truck Acts. Thatcher wasn't it?

@ChrisMayLA6 Not sure that that is legal. If each individual booking is being defined as a separate contract, then deducting something from their wages is not right. The only way they could do that would be for the app company to be acting as an agency, employing them, surely? Then they would be permitted to pay them on a set frequency, and any fees for getting the money earlier would be as an advance on their wages.

@UkeleleEric

Yes, I'm sure that's not how they structure it legally, I was suggesting that was how it should be understood practically, from the point of view of holding back wages for a month (in the worst case)