Forget workers going out on strike - in future it should be consumers

I BELONG to a generation that has been told there is no other choice other than to be flexible in the labour market. It means being flexible about where you go to work, when you go to work, and about what work you are going to do. For many of us, the idea of a long-term employment contract in a company where there is the possibility to progress belongs to another time.

This is a major challenge for one of our fundamental human rights: the right of workers to collectively bargain for better conditions. In most countries, labour law protects workers who take industrial action from disciplinary action - provided they follow the right procedure on balloting, giving notice to employers and so forth.

Unless you are an employee, however, there is no such protection. In this respect, the likes of Uber drivers and Deliveroo riders are in a grey area. If they take industrial action, they face being removed from the platform that pays them. For many in the so-called gig economy it's not even clear who their actual employer might be, since they give their labour to numerous different ones at the same time.