Workers are being urged to form co-operatives they collectively own to protect their entitlements and to out-do Uber and Airtasker at their own game.

US lawyer Janelle Orsi, who was in Sydney at Vivid Ideas last week, said the business model used by Uber, Airtasker and Airbnb could be cloned and used in a way that could protect a growing number of workers from exploitation.

She said a few giant companies had created a good business model but they had little incentive to do the right thing by workers. But workers could eventually create their own online apps instead of using the ones owned by billionaires.

Ms Orsi, from the Sustainable Economies Law Centre in California, said there were winners and losers in the gig economy. While many benefit from the independence of contract work, others flounder and struggle to make enough money to survive. She said some workers had been sacked with no understanding of why they had lost their jobs.