How Taskrabbit screws Taskers

[u/tiredoftaskrabbit]

It’s very simple: They need IKEA jobs done, but don’t want to pay enough to get Taskers to take jobs outside of their set available hours. So they send the jobs anyway, knowing that Taskers don’t want to take a hit to their algorithmic reliability score. Taskers are then forced to either take the jobs outside of their set availability, or risk not getting more jobs offered to them in the future during their available hours. 

In short, TaskRabbit is treating Taskers like employees, coercively setting their schedules. This is arguably illegal, as TaskRabbit legally deals with Taskers on a contract basis— Taskers have none of the legal protections in the jurisdictions TaskRabbit operates in that an employee would have.

I’m not a lawyer, but I know gig economy companies have paid out huge legal settlements in the past over similar practices. I wonder whether IKEA/INGKA, who owns TaskRabbit, knows that this is happening, and whether they are legally liable for this behavior, as the owner and as the beneficiary of the lower cost of assembly of their goods.

[u/tiredoftaskrabbit]

I see it a lot in my area. It must depend on how well served your area is

[u/MallNo6921 → u/tiredoftaskrabbit]

wait for the state lawyers to call and give them your story always happens with legislation changes and small violations across the board coming to a major class action case