Potential and Limits of Competition Law in Improving the Working Conditions of Gig Workers: The Case of Kenya’s e-Hailing App Market
17 Nov 2023
16:00 -18:00
Open to: All
Room G24, Faculty of Law
The David Williams Building
10 West Rd
Cambridge
CB3 9DZ
United Kingdom
Join our Centre for Business Research seminar
Speaker: Dr Vellah Kedogo Kigwiru, Technical University of Munich
About the seminar topic
Research on the gig economy has revealed that gig workers have weak bargaining power, making them susceptible to exploitation. Despite the precarious position of gig workers, when classified as independent contractors, they do not benefit from employment or competition law. Despite the increased protest from gig workers, especially in the e-hailing market, under competition law, gig workers are prohibited from entering collective bargaining agreements with platforms because they are not employees. Some scholars have argued that there is a need to extend the labour exemption in competition law to gig workers, which grants them the right to collective bargaining because they are in the same situation as workers. In this project, I discuss the potential and limits of competition law in improving the working conditions of gig workers.