Uber Works: Uber reportedly developing short-term job service

Uber
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi speaks onstage at Day 1 of the Vanity Fair
New Establishment Summit 2018 at The Wallis Annenberg Center for
the Performing Arts on October 9, 2018 in Beverly Hills,
California.
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• Uber is reportedly
  developing a new service that would provide short-term jobs in
  professions like security and hospitality.
• It would be a major expansion for the California tech
  company, and comes as the company gears up for an IPO.
• But it is also likely to draw criticism from labor
  activists, who have previously attacked Uber over how it treats
  its workers.

Uber has transformed the global taxi industry — and now it’s
eyeing up other professions.

According to a report from The Financial Times on Thursday,
citing “people familiar with the matter,” the California
transportation giant is quietly building out a new business unit
that would connect job-seekers to short-term roles like “waiters
and security guards.”

The effort, referred to as Uber Works, would be a significant
expansion of the services Uber offers, and comes as the company
gears up to go public in a long-awaited IPO in 2019. 

The news is also likely to provoke fresh criticism of Uber from
labor activists. The company has been long attacked by critics
over what they argue is an exploitative work model for its
drivers without the benefits of traditional employment, and Uber
moving into new industries will spark fresh fears about the
company’s impact on workers’ rights.

For its part, Uber has argued its model — where self-employed
people decide when they want to work via an app — provides
workers with greater flexibility, and that workers have spoken
favorably of the set-up in surveys.

According to The FT’s report, Uber has tested Uber Works in Los
Angeles and is currently being developed in Chicago. It’s not
clear exactly what kinds of roles are being considered as
suitable for the model beyond the two cited in the report —
waiters and security guards.

An Uber spokesperson declined to comment to Business Insider.

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