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Beyond Misclassification: The Digital Transformation Of Work, Miriam A. Cherry
Beyond Misclassification: The Digital Transformation Of Work, Miriam A. Cherry
All Faculty Scholarship
The first part of this article provides a brief litigation update on various worker lawsuits within the gig economy. While the O’Connor v. Uber case has received the lion’s share of attention and analysis, similar lawsuits on labor standards have been filed against other on-demand platforms. Analysis of the ongoing litigation reveals several important themes, including an emphasis on the labor law of California. The second part of the article shifts from the doctrinal issues around misclassification to look at broader trends, arguing that we are currently experiencing a far-reaching digital transformation of work. The changes include thegrowth of automatic …
The Gamification Of Work, Miriam A. Cherry
The Gamification Of Work, Miriam A. Cherry
All Faculty Scholarship
In the language of cyberspace, introducing elements of fun or game-playing into everyday tasks or through simulations is known as the process of “gamification.” The idea that people could be working while they play a video game – in some instances without even knowing that they are working – is becoming part of our reality. Gamification is an important element of what in previous writing I have termed “virtual work,” that is, work that is taking place wholly online, in crowdsourcing arrangements, or in virtual worlds. The gamification of work is an important trend with important implications for employment law. …
Virtual Whistleblowing, Miriam A. Cherry
Virtual Whistleblowing, Miriam A. Cherry
All Faculty Scholarship
With the advent of YouTube, blogs, social networking, and whistleblower websites such as WikiLeaks, the paradigm of whistleblowing is changing. The new paradigm for “virtual whistleblowing” is increasingly online, networked, and anonymous. While whistleblowing can take place in many contexts, this symposium article concentrates on the impact of technological changes on employment law whistleblowing. My contention for some time has been that existing regulation has been inadequate to cover existing forms of whistleblowing. Therefore, it is not surprising that existing whistleblowing laws have also failed to keep pace with the changes brought by modern technology. If older laws cannot be …
A Taxonomy Of Virtual Work, Miriam A. Cherry
A Taxonomy Of Virtual Work, Miriam A. Cherry
All Faculty Scholarship
Millions of people worldwide entertain themselves or supplement their incomes – or both – by meeting with fellow employees as avatars in virtual worlds such as Second Life, solving complicated problems on websites like Innocentive, or casually “clicking” to make money for simple tasks on Amazon.com’s Mechanical Turk. Virtual work has great promise – increasing efficiency by reducing the time and expense involved in gathering workers who live great distances apart, and allowing for efficient use of skills so that the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts. At the same time, virtual work presents its own …
Working For (Virtually) Minimum Wage: Applying The Fair Labor Standards Act In Cyberspace, Miriam A. Cherry
Working For (Virtually) Minimum Wage: Applying The Fair Labor Standards Act In Cyberspace, Miriam A. Cherry
All Faculty Scholarship
As more work enters cyberspace, takes place in virtual worlds, and collapses traditional nation-state barriers, we are entering a new era of “virtual work.” In this article, I use “virtual work” as an umbrella term to encompass work in virtual worlds, crowdsourcing, clickworking, even sweeping in, to some degree, the commonplace telecommuting and “mobile executives” that have become ubiquitous over the past decade.Are such new forms of “work” entitled to the minimum payment standards mandated under the FLSA? As the United States enters another economic crisis, and with advances in technology key to continued economic growth and stability, these questions …