On PHP 5.5 you can use the following code for passing context by reference and avoid "Call-time pass-by-reference has been removed":

<?php
$client = new GearmanClient();
$client->addServer();

# Set a function to be called when the work is complete
$client->setCompleteCallback("reverse_complete");

# Use StdClass instead of array
$results = new StdClass();
$results->value = array();

# Add some tasks for a placeholder of where to put the results
$client->addTask("reverse", "Hello World!", $results, "t1");
$client->addTask("reverse", "!dlroW olleH", $results, "t2");

$client->runTasks();

# The results should now be filled in from the callbacks
foreach ($results->value as $id => $result) {
    echo $id . ": " . $result['handle'] . ", " . $result['data'] . "\n";
}

function reverse_complete(GearmanTask $task, StdClass $results)
{
    $results->value[$task->unique()] = array(
        "handle" => $task->jobHandle(),
        "data" => $task->data()
    );
}
?>

Note that param $unique must be different for multiple tasks if You want to run they all separately. If param $unique is equal for multiple tasks You will get the same task:

<?php
  $unique=1;

  $gclient = GearmanClient();
  $gclient->addServer('srv');  
  
  $this->setCreatedCallback(function(GearmanTask $task) {
    print $task->jobHandle() . "\n"; 
  });
  
  $gclient->addTask('function_name', 'workload', null, $unique);
  $gclient->addTask('function_name', 'workload', null, $unique);
  $gclient->addTask('function_name', 'workload', null, $unique);
  $gclient->runTasks();
  
  sleep(5);
?>

This sript will print only one handler:

H:srv:377382343
H:srv:377382343
H:srv:377382343

As of PHP 5.3.0, you will get a warning saying that "call-time pass-by-reference" is deprecated when you use & in $client->addTask(..., ..., &$results, ...);. And as of PHP 5.4.0, call-time pass-by-reference was removed, so using it will raise a fatal error.

So that means that when you call addTask with a context parameter as in the example above like this:

<?php
# Add some tasks for a placeholder of where to put the results
$results = array();
$client->addTask("reverse", "Hello World!", &$results, "t1");
?>

You get this "call-time pass-by-reference" warning (or error).  This can be avoided and still result in functional code by changing the context variable to be an object so that it is passed by reference like this:

<?php
$results = new \stdClass();
$client->addTask("reverse", "Hello World!", $results, "t1");
?>

Then for completeness, change the complete handler to expect a reference:

<?php
function reverse_complete($task, &$results) { ... }
?>

Then inside the complete handler, you can use the $results object to save your results to be accessible outside the complete handler.