BlueCrew：可按需提供人手的初创公司（但需要雇佣他们并提供福利）
悬在新兴的按需经济之上的达摩克利斯剑是如何对工作人员进行分类，以及将员工分为 W2 永久雇员和 1099 合同工这种二分法是否还适用于如今的工作。（W2 和 1099 是美国依据工作性质而分的报税表，译者注）
例如，因为 Uber 的司机用的是自己的车，自己决定工作时间并且公司也不需要进行大量的培训，这就对合同工模式造成了冲击。不过，加州劳工委员会 最近做出有利于一位 Uber 司机的判决，认为她应当被视为雇员 。自此之后，Shyp 和 Instacart 等公司都至少将其部分员工转成了永久雇员，这是因为他们需要接受更多的培训。
一家名为 BlueCrew 的 YC 新公司认为还有另一种解决方式。这家公司是一个服务型临时工职介机构，覆盖范围从仓库工作到生产手选工和包装工再到数据录入人员等等。该公司与其他公司的关键区别在于他们是以 W2 的形式雇佣工人。
“我们帮助其他公司寻找适合所谓的低复杂度工作的工人，”BlueCrew 的联合创始人米歇尔·卡塞尔塔诺（Michele Casertano）说道。“但是我们的业务模式和其他公司的一个最大不同在于我们所有的工人都是 W2 雇员。我们相信这一点同时给予工人和客户更多的安全感。”
另一位创始人库珀·纽比（Cooper Newby）补充说，“合同工模式在短期内要便宜很多，但长期来看却不是这样。很多创业公司对于他们要对 1099 合同工承担多少责任并不太熟悉。如果你在员工分类上发生了错误，那么你就必须补缴税款和相应的福利。这需要承担很多责任。”
在拥有“数百名”工人的基础上，该公司表示他们可以在不到 40 分钟内迅速填补一家公司的 20 多个职位缺口，并且出勤率为 98%。该公司称，它拥有 5 个以上的客户，有做搬家具业务的，也有在东湾制作玉米粉薄烙饼的工厂。
该公司会负责处理 1099-雇主通常会丢给他们的合同工的所有繁琐事务，如税金扣款、联邦社会保险税和劳工赔偿保险。反过来，BlueCrew 的雇员会有一个循环的工作安排，为每种类型业务提供的制服和培训。他们每小时挣的钱在 12 到 20 美元之间。如果他们加班，每小时就会多得 50%。
BlueCrew 的公司客户会得到一个经过筛选和编排的工作团队，这些都是符合劳动法律法规的人员。所有的工人都会有简介、图片、评级和先前工作经验的列表。
为此，卡塞尔塔诺说，BlueCrew 在计时工资上的提成“没有特别高”，不过拒绝详谈他们的提成份额。他们用许多不同的方式寻找雇员，不仅利用 Craigslist 和 Facebook 广告，还会利用退伍军人管理局和推荐。他们还筹集了一些种子资金，但拒绝透露资金金额以及投资者。
卡塞尔塔诺曾在欧洲、中东和非洲做过供应链管理。“我只是觉得应该有一个更好的方法来管理和寻找临时工，”他这样说，还说许多工人用几个小时的行程换来的结果却是被工作拒之门外。
一些风险投资人，如 格雷洛克的西蒙·罗斯曼（Simon Rothman）就曾呼吁 在 W2 和 1099 的分类之外再增加第三类合法用工。
卡塞尔塔诺说，“如果有第三个分类，那的确会让人欣喜。但必须要伴有劳工赔偿。有些人被东西砸到之后他们的生活就毁了。这些问题应该得到解决，因为这就是劳工赔偿应该做的。新的分类应当具有灵活性，但它也需要以某种方式配备劳工赔偿。”
YC’s BlueCrew Provides Workers For The On-Demand World (But Hires Them As Employees With Benefits)
The Damocles sword hanging above the emerging on-demand economy is how to classify workers, and whether the dichotomy between permanent W2 workers and 1099 contractors is even appropriate to the kinds of work that exist today.
For example, Uber has stuck to the contractor model, since drivers provide their own cars, set their own hours and the company doesn’t need to do substantial training. The California Labor Commission, however, recently ruled in favor of a driver and argued that she should be an employee. Following that, other companies like Shyp and Instacart have shifted at least some of their workers to permanent status, because they require more training.
A new YC company called BlueCrew thinks it has another answer. They’re a temporary staffing agency for service jobs from warehouse work to produce pickers and packers to data entry personnel. The key difference here is that they employ their workers as W2 employees.
“We help companies find the workers for what we call low-complexity jobs,” said Michele Casertano, a BlueCrew co-founder. “But a big difference between our business model and others is that all of our workers are W2 employees. This, we believe, gives more security both to the workers and to the customers.”
His co-founder Cooper Newby added, “A contractor model is much much cheaper in the short-term, but not in the long-term. A lot of startups aren’t familiar with how much liability they’re taking on with 1099 contractors. If you have a misclassification problem, you’ll have to pay back-taxes and back-benefits. That’s a lot of liability.”
With a base of “hundreds” of workers, the company says they can quickly fill more than 20 openings a company in less than 40 minutes with a 98 percent show-up rate. The company says it has at least five clients ranging from a furniture-moving business to a tortilla-making factory in the East Bay.
The company takes care of all of the complexities that a 1099-employer would normally pass onto their contractors like tax withholdings, FICA taxes and worker’s compensation insurance. BlueCrew employees, in turn, have a recurring work schedule, uniforms and training for each type of business. They make between $12 and $20 an hour. If they work overtime, they get 50 percent more per hour.
BlueCrew’s company clients get a pre-screened and curated workforce that is compliant with labor laws and regulations. All of the workers have profiles, pictures, ratings and a list of their previous experiences.
For this, BlueCrew takes a “not super-high” cut on the hourly wages, Casertano said, declining to elaborate on their share. They source workers in a number of different ways from Craigslist and Facebook ads and then through the Veterans Administration and referrals. They also have raised some seed funding, but declined to say how much or from whom.
Casertano used to manage supply chains in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “I just thought there had to be a better way to a mange and source temporary workers,” he said, recalling that many workers would travel for hours and then be refused work.
Some venture capitalists like Greylock’s Simon Rothman have called for a third legal kind of worker in addition to the W2 and 1099 classifications.
“It would be a nice if there was a third classification,” Casertano said. “But workers comp has to be there. There are people who have things fall on them and their life is ruined. They deserve a settlement, because that’s what workers comp is for. It should give flexibility, but it also needs to give worker’s comp somehow.”
来源：techcrunch
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