Dynamic pay on platforms such as Uber should be banned, says TUC

Exclusive: Union body finds workers describing themselves as ‘gambling’ because wages felt like the outcome of chance rather than work

The practice of using “dynamic pricing” to set pay on gig economy platforms including Uber should be banned because it leaves workers at the mercy of shadowy algorithms with no certainty over their earnings, trade union leaders have urged.

In a report exposing the human cost of the gig economy practice, the Trades Union Congress said pay was becoming decoupled from time, skill or effort. Instead, work had become a speculative practice with the rewards determined by an algorithmic process with little transparency.