Uniqlo is among the retailers using gig economy apps such as Temper and YoungOnes to draft in shop assistants for the busy Christmas run-up. Photograph: Iain Masterton/Alamy
Lush and Gymshark among chains using apps promoted by TikTok influencers to take on gig economy assistants lacking basic protections, say unions
Unions have accused high-street retailers of drafting in young gig economy store assistants without basic employment rights in the run-up to Christmas.
The Observer has found large brands, including Urban Outfitters, Lush, Gymshark and Uniqlo, are recruiting “freelance” shop assistants through gig apps to staff their stores during the busy festive period.
The apps are being promoted by youth influencers with hundreds of thousands of TikTok followers.
“This is a worrying new development,” said Tim Sharp, senior policy officer for employment rights at the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
“It would seem absurd to most people that someone can do a job like working in a shop and not be entitled to basic legal protections. There is a big question mark over the employment status of these supposed freelancers.”
John McDonnell, Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington speaks at an anti-racism rally and march in central London organised by Stand Up To Racism and trade unions, March 16, 2024
MPs have joined disability activists calling for a public inquiry into deaths linked to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell MP has tabled an early day motion urging the government to set up the probe.
It states: “That this House notes the shocking evidence published by John Pring in his recent book [on] the harm, too often leading to fatalities, inflicted on disabled people by the DWP since the introduction of the work capability assessment.”
It calls on the government to establish an independent public inquiry into the role played by ministers, civil servants and advisers and their culpability for the suffering identified in this research.
Labour’s Jon Trickett, Mary Kelly Foy and Ian Lavery; SDLP’s Claire Hanna; and DUP’s Jim Shannon have sponsored the motion. Labour MP Grahame Morris has also backed it.
The president-elect’s advisers are reportedly discussing plans to shrink or eliminate key bank watchdogs, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
President-elect Donald Trump and his advisers are reportedly considering plans to weaken—or abolish altogether—top bank regulators, including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that members of Trump’s transition team and the new Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have asked nominees under consideration to head the FDIC and OCC if the bank watchdogs could be eliminated and have their functions absorbed by the Treasury Department, which is set to be run by a billionaire hedge fund manager and crypto enthusiast.
“Bank executives are optimistic President-elect Donald Trump will ease a host of regulations on capital cushions and consumer protections, as well as scrutiny of consolidation in the industry,” the Journal reported. “But FDIC deposit insurance is considered near sacred. Any move that threatened to undermine even the perception of deposit insurance could quickly ripple through banks and in a crisis might compound customer fears.”
The Trump team’s internal and fluid discussions about the fate of the key bank regulators broadly aligns with Project 2025’s proposal to “merge the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Federal Reserve’s non-monetary supervisory and regulatory functions.”
The FDIC, which is primarily funded by bank insurance premiums, was established during the Great Depression to restore public trust in the nation’s banking system, and the agency played a central role in navigating the 2023 bank failures that threatened a systemic crisis.
Observers warned that gutting the FDIC and OCC could catalyze another economic meltdown.
“The next recession starts here,” tech journalist Jacob Silverman warned in response to the Journal‘s reporting.
Eric Rauchway, a historian of the New Deal, wrote that “even Milton Friedman appreciated the FDIC,” underscoring the extreme nature of the incoming Trump administration’s deregulatory ambitions.
Musk, the world’s wealthiest man, is also pushing for the elimination of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency established in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
The Journal noted Thursday that “Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky and Trump ally on the House Financial Services Committee, has backed the plan to eliminate or drastically alter the CFPB and said he wants to get rid of what he calls ‘one-size-fits-all’ regulation for banks.”
Barr has received millions of dollars in campaign donations from the financial sector and “introduced many pieces of pro-industry legislation, including significant rollbacks of protections stemming from the 2008 financial crisis,” according to the watchdog group Accountable.US.
Syrians wave the country’s new flag as they gather for Friday prayers at the Umayyad mosque in Damascus, Syria, December 13, 2024
THOUSANDS of Syrians gathered in the capital Damascus today in rallies called by its new rulers to celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad, as the United States and Turkey “broadly agreed” on their plans for the country.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met allies in Jordan, Turkey and Iraq to shape the transition of Syria’s leadership, calling for an “inclusive and non-sectarian” interim government.
After talks with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Mr Blinken said there was “broad agreement” between Turkey and the US on what they would like to see in Syria.
Mr Fidan said the priority was “establishing stability in Syria as soon as possible, preventing terrorism from gaining ground, and ensuring that Islamic State and the Kurdistan Workers Party aren’t dominant.”
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has ruled Idlib since 2017 under Turkish protection and swept to power last weekend, claims it has broken ties with its extremist past linked to al-Qaida and its leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani), invited the public to “show their happiness” at Damascus’s squares.
Huge crowds, including some insurgent fighters, packed the capital’s historic Umayyad Mosque in the old city for Friday prayers.
