The Legal Classification of Human Capital in ‘Markets, Hybrids and Hierarchies’

Abstract

Abstract The growth in platform work in the digital economy has challenged the legal classification of human capital across ‘markets, hybrids, and hierarchies’ in the labour market. In comparing the trinary approach in English law with Singapore’s binary approach in determining worker status, the aim of this article is to consider how Singapore’s labour law should be restructured and hybrid workers should be accorded appropriate recognition in order to recalibrate the coordination-risk bargain between capital and labour. The coordination-risk bargain – as the key function of labour law in the regulation of hybrid workers – refers to the capacity of the firm to coordinate the allocation of labour inputs under non-standard employment arrangements in exchange for absorbing the social and economic risks of the worker’s subordination and dependence. On this basis, this article proposes a reformulation of the ‘limb (b) worker’ category under the UK Employment Rights Act 1996, which should form the basis of labour law reforms in Singapore towards a more sustainable form of capitalism.