Except for the part that the companies will punish them for rejecting orders, and that they can't negotiate the price of the orders nor set any price themselves.

1. Doordash does not penalize for skipping orders. They give the total payout first to allow people to skip orders in the first place. It’s a feature. 2. Because you see the price before accepting an order, you are effectively negotiating the orders you want to take based on price. You can sit in your car all day declining orders until you see a price you agree with.

Are you saying if I hire a contractor with a price set by me and I would "punish" (i.e. never hire them again) when they don't agree, they are suddenly my employee?

When you are hiring contractor you offer a price the contractor can come back and say I can do it for this higher price. Clearly not employee. On other hand the gig workers can't lets say offer to bring your food for 1000€ this one time. They should be able if they are independent.