Search

This article delves into freelancers'"effort-bargain" experiences within platform work, where effort is exchanged for income. The study of experiences enables us to understand how freelancer–platform relationships evolve in light of the platforms' lack of recognition of freelancers' skills. Drawing on 63 interviews across four platforms within the online labor market (OLM), the authors present a theoretical framework explaining a "skill-driven continuum" in such relationships. At one extreme (cooperation), freelancers experience the effort-bargain as recognition exchange, facilitated by non-competitive, regular transactions allowing them to monetize their skills. At the other extreme (exploitation), freelancers experience their skills going unrecognized because of competitive bidding for casual gigs. While freelancers with specialized skills are sometimes able to disintermediate, thereby retaining recognition by claiming autonomy and monetary gains, those with generalized skills may resort to gaming, seeking to gain recognition by boosting their ratings. The authors provide insights into freelancers' effort-bargain experiences by the meanings associated with skill-recognition and skill-exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how gig workers interact with more conventional employees. Drawing on original qualitative and quantitative data from Instacart shoppers and grocery store staff, this article shows how Instacart's algorithmic management system pushes shoppers to mistreat in-store staff. Yet for shoppers who frequently interact with staff, the author finds they develop cooperative, cross-organization co-worker relationships. These relationships grant shoppers access to resources typically reserved for staff, allowing them to navigate the algorithmic constraints that Instacart places on them. Findings show that platform companies' use of algorithmic management tools can spill over to negatively affect the working conditions of conventional workers; but also, that gig workers can improve their own conditions by building relationships with their conventional peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent literature on platform work and the welfare state has stressed that, despite being affected by high‐income insecurity, platform workers cannot easily access social protection. However, it is unclear why platform workers encounter such barriers. This article offers an inductive and empirically based theoretical framework to investigate the obstacles faced by platform workers. It shows that the barriers experienced by platform workers depend on the eligibility criteria, the assessment criteria and the trade‐off between taxation and social protection. The article substantiates these claims by offering both a policy analysis of formal arrangements and a qualitative analysis of the lived experiences of welfare of 101 platform workers in Italy, Sweden and the UK during COVID‐19. The research found that, while many platform workers attempted to access social protection during COVID‐19, platform workers' access to social protection was affected by their positionality as outsiders, which clashes with the eligibility criteria (in Sweden and Italy); by the irregular nature of platform work, which contrasts with the rigidity of the assessment criteria (in the UK, Italy and Sweden); and by the implicit trade‐off experienced by platform workers between minimising taxation and accessing to social protection (in the UK and Italy). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Empirical research has found that platform workers have adopted both collective actions and informal practices to address unfavorable working conditions. However, the “small-scale geographies” of platform work as well as the inter-linkage of shifting forms of resistance is under-explored. This paper aims to broaden and deepen our understanding of resistance from platform workers, through a case study of app-based delivery drivers in Shanghai, China. As responses to precarity, drivers have resorted to both open, collective actions and more hidden everyday practices. Because of surveillance by the Chinese state and the close managerial control of workers, collective protests have been rarely seen and of limited effectiveness; more individual and quiet practices such as dissimulating data are favored by drivers in their everyday resistance. We argue that the intention to resist on the part of drivers echoes and expands Bayat’s observations on the survival techniques of the urban poor, and differs from the “political act” argued by Scott. It is hard to conclude that the drivers’ everyday resistance can provoke dramatic confrontation in China as Scott’s arguments would lead us to suppose. Our study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the platform economy by highlighting the unique modalities and strategies of delivery drivers in China, which differs significantly from those in Western contexts that are often addressed in the existing literature. It sheds light on the specific forms of struggle against the asymmetric power of platforms and provides new insights into the mechanisms of resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do gig workers respond to the various financial, physical, and legal risks their work entails? Answers to this question have remained unclear, largely because previous studies have overlooked structurally induced variations in the experience of platform work. In this article, we develop a theory of differential embeddedness to explain why workers' orientations toward the risks of gig work vary. We argue further that because platforms define themselves merely as mediators of exchanges between workers and customers, they systematically expose workers to various forms of customer malfeasance, ranging from fraud and tip baiting to harassment and assault. We develop this perspective using interviews with 70 workers in the ride-hail, grocery shopping, and food delivery sectors. The structure of labor platforms indirectly invites workers to exhibit distinct normative orientations toward the risks that gig work entails while also multiplying the sources of these risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a case study of taxi platforms in Oslo, Norway comprised of interviews with drivers and an ethnographic fieldwork working a driver, this article explores the platformization of the Norwegian taxi industry and the drivers' working conditions through Marx's concept of subsumption. In Norway, taxi platforms emerged in an already formally subsumed industry. The platforms have developed a new market segment, and also introduced an additional element in the subsumption of labor, whereby the platforms exert control over the market relations (by determining number of rides, earnings, and potential exclusions) through digital technology. While the platforms' 'algorithmic management' is often described as a technology that might reorganize the world of work, the analysis finds that this form of control does not radically transform the drivers' labor processes and cannot be seen as an example of what Marx termed real subsumption. However, the platformization of the industry, wherein the platforms appropriate the social and technological conditions of production, might result in a reorganization and transformation corresponding to a real subsumption in the future. The article concludes that exploring platform work through Marx's notion of subsumption highlights, on one hand, the relation between platforms and workers as characterized by subordination and domination and, on the other, that a detailed and critical assessment of the actual consequences of platform-based control is necessary to capture the contextual dynamics of platformization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholarship about worker precarity, economic insecurity, and individualized risk in platform work tends to ignore that these trends are common features of informal economies in countries like Kenya, which has a culture of hustling rooted in economic opportunism and political resistance. Recognizing the parallels between the platform economy and Kenya's informal economy, we examine individual and collective strategies ride-haling drivers in Kenya use to navigate the precarity of platform work. This study draws primarily from interviews with 30 ride-hailing drivers working in Nairobi, Kenya. Interview data is supplemented by two rounds of in-person fieldwork conducted by the first author who solicited rides, engaged in unstructured conversations with drivers, and kept detailed notes. Although ride-hailing companies severely limit opportunities for driver autonomy and labor power, drivers engaged in several individual and collective acts of resistance to increase their income and wrestle back control from their employers. These acts of resistance include extending rides, adding customers outside of the app, asking riders to cancel requests, and striking. While ride-hailing platforms exert significant control over drivers' working conditions and income, drivers can exercise labor power through acts of resistance based on hustling and solidarity. These acts of resistance rely heavily on solidarities among drivers as well as between drivers and riders. This study answers calls to de-Westernize platform studies by asking what Kenyan ride-hailing drivers can teach the rest of the world about navigating the precarity of global platform work. Our findings extend previous research on platform worker resistance in the Global South by introducing the importance of solidarities between platform workers and clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Sozialreform is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Discussions about the Future of Work have become ubiquitous both in academic and international organizations' discourse. As part of these developments, the platform economy has revolutionized work practices and relationships. Despite the emergence of a burgeoning literature on platform studies, little is known about whether and to what extent platform work exacerbates the risk of gender-based violence among workers. This review article examines 39 academic articles, book chapters, reports, and conference papers published between 2016 and 2023 using qualitative content analysis to provide a preliminary understanding of empirical data on this issue. The reviewed studies were selected using relevant keywords on the basis of a database of 175 studies examining the platform economy with gender perspective, complemented with additional sources identified during the review. The main findings are: platform workers across sectors are vulnerable to gender-based violence, especially those at the intersection of several axes of subordination; platforms' socio-technological features exacerbate the risk of gender-based violence; (fear of) gender-based violence limits women's access to platform work and the economic benefits derived from it; most platforms lack effective preventative and redressal mechanisms against violence; and, faced with platforms' inaction, workers adopt individual and collective measures to address (the risk of) gender-based violence in platform work. The analysis also evidences the need for more research on intersectional vulnerabilities, particularly with regard to sexual orientation and gender expression and identity, as well as on the physical and psychological impact of gender-based violence on platform workers, which provides avenues for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Question (RQ): In this paper, we answer the research question of whether platform workers harbour a sense of loyalty towards the platform they work for, despite the transient nature of this work form, the absence of traditional employment benefits and the often-impersonal relationship between the platform and its workers. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to expand the discussion on employee loyalty to the context of platform work, due to the crucial role employee loyalty plays for both organisations and their workers – employee loyalty helps organisations retain their workforce and avoid the harms of employee turnover, while also fostering a sense of belonging and fulfilment among employees. Method: 20 in-depth semi-structured interviews were performed with food delivery couriers (working for Wolt and Glovo) from Slovenia. Results: Our findings show that while this group of workers does display some behaviours which indicate their loyalty to their platform, such as the fact they mostly speak of the platform positively, they actively recommend it to their peers and they display relatively high levels of trust towards it, they do not feel loyal to the extent where they would intent to stay working for the platform indefinitely. Organization: These findings are important for the sustainability of the platform economy model, as they can help reduce employee turnover and consequently improve the consistency and profitability of digital labour platforms. Society: Findings on employee loyalty within the platform economy have the potential to decrease employee turnover, which is currently one of the biggest limitations to collective action in this sector. Originality: This is one of the first papers to discuss the phenomenon of employee loyalty in the context of platform work, as the concept is typically explored in traditional employment relationships. It contributes to our understanding of whether individuals, platform, or non-platform economy participants, can develop a sense of loyalty even towards employers who offer suboptimal working conditions. Limitations / further research: The current body of knowledge would greatly benefit from a longitudinal study which could explain how platform workers’ sentiments towards their platform change over time.

Platform work represents a new form of non-standard work without recognition by European labour law. In recent years, the issue of improving working conditions in platform work has been at the heart of political and academic debate. On 11th March 2024, the employment and social affairs ministers of the EU Member States endorsed the agreement reached with the European Parliament on the Commission’s proposed directive on platform work. The directive tackles situations of wrong classification of employment status, introducing a rebuttable legal presumption and reducing the burden of proof on persons performing platform work. In addition, the directive introduces the first EU rules to regulate algorithmic management in the workplace. This paper traces the positions advocated by the European institutions in defining the strategy for improving working conditions within digital platforms and offers an extended analysis of the final text of the directive that has just been approved.

AbstractPeople with disabilities in general and wheelchair users in particular face challenges in transportation services hailed using smartphone apps such as as Uber and Lyft. Although some riders who use wheelchairs use the services successfully, others experience various challenges from shortage of accessible vehicles, service denial by drivers, and long wait times. This article explains how in the U.S. these companies position themselves as technology platforms, an intermediary entity between drivers and riders, and therefore not accountable for accessibility regulations and labor standards. This positioning leads to inaccessible services for wheelchair users. This paper highlights considerations for change that can improve the prospects of wheelchair users to travel using these apps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platforms are becoming an important factor in the process of reconfiguration and commodification of social reproduction during the neoliberal phase of capitalism. Developing a theoretical framework merging social reproduction theory and migrant labour regimes, this article argues that the introduction of digital platforms in the care sector is facilitating the expansion of precarised commodification of reproductive activities in a context of social care crisis. Through a mixed-method analysis, combining desk-based research with in-depth interviews of digital care platform work in Spain, the study examines the migrant labour regime of digital care platforms and how they take advantage of the international division of labour and global care chains to further exploit a highly precarious, informalised, feminised and racialised workforce. Our findings reveal that platforms use technology to rapidly access a reserve labour army, thus extracting more surplus value by restricting access to information, controlling the intermediation process and further fragmenting the workforce in reproductive activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Challenges of the Future / Izzivi Prihodnosti is the property of Fakulteta za Organizacijske Studije v Novem mestu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Working conditions in platform work are often, yet rarely explicitly, assessed according to criteria similar to those applied to the quality of jobs outside the gig economy. In this article the authors argue that future research would benefit from analytical schemes that enable a systematic analysis of working conditions in platform work. They discuss the advantages and challenges of applying existing job-quality frameworks to platform work and present a suggestion for modifications that consider the particularities of platform work. The use of such a novel analytical framework could help systematise evidence from qualitative research, promote the heretofore rare initiatives of quantitative representative data collection, and inspire theoretical developments at the interface of job quality and platform work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A burgeoning literature has analysed how and why platform workers express their (collective) voice. While this 'willingness to act' of platform workers is evidenced across several countries, there is little research on their 'willingness to pay', however. Are platform workers willing to become dues paying union members? Exploiting novel survey data from Austria, this article addresses this gap by analysing the propensity of app-mediated food delivery couriers to join trade unions. Similarly to traditional industries, the findings demonstrate that the decision to join a union is driven by instrumental and value-rational motivations. Compared to employed couriers, those on 'free-service provider contracts', i.e. freelancers, are less likely to unionise, however. Also, short expected job tenure and limited personal contacts hinder unionisation in app-mediated food delivery. Yet unions are not without tools: they can significantly improve relationships between them and the couriers by supporting grassroots activists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to present a bibliometric analysis of publications on platform work and explore the intellectual structure of the field. Bibliometric analysis: It overviews academic research, identifying leading trends in magazines, citations, authors, keywords, and institutions. It is, therefore, essential to understand current scientific production and developments in future lines of research. As a result of scanning the Web of Science Core Collection database with the "platform study" concept, 266 documents were reached. Bibliometric data from 203 papers published between 2017 and July 2023 were used as the unit of analysis. The data set was examined regarding various bibliometric indicators such as authors, journals, institutions, countries, texts, and co-authors. Research findings show that considering the number of citations, the most influential author is Schor, the most influential nation is the USA, and the most influential journal is the Annual Review of Sociology. The most influential institution is Boston University. The most significant article is Vallas (2020). The first three concepts most frequently used in publications about platform work are algorithmic management, Uber and insecurity, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While prior research has demonstrated the poor and unpredictable working conditions and ambiguous working arrangements characteristic of platform‐based food delivery, we lack research on the question of how well these workers are informed about essential aspects of their work, including protection of their rights, working time and schedules, and earnings. Comprehensive and transparent information on working conditions at an early stage is indispensable if workers are to be able to make informed decisions on taking up work and, where relevant, investing in equipment and exercising rights linked to a specific job. Drawing on the multi‐dimensional job quality literature, this article focuses on digital labour platforms in the food delivery sector across four countries: Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. We exploit firm‐level variations, including with regard to the types of work arrangements used and the application—or not—of collective agreements. We draw on information provided to riders during the application process prior to the start of employment, including via websites and FAQs, as well as scrutiny of contracts, service agreements and collective bargaining agreements, where relevant. This information is complemented with interviews with trade union representatives. Our findings point to the relationship between a firm's choice of employment status and form of contract, on one hand, and the predictability and transparency of information provided to workers, on the other. Differences and similarities in such information seem to be more strongly bound to firm‐level decisions than to the welfare and industrial relations regimes in which the platform companies operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few years, the proliferation of digital labour platforms has led to the transformation of business models and labour relations in an increasing number of economic activities, including highly feminized and informal traditional sectors, such as care and domestic work. Drawing on an analysis of 37 digital care platforms in Spain, this research compares the distinctive features and structural power dynamics they engender, and it constructs a taxonomy of business models of these care platforms. By analysing the main features of their operational models, we are capable of distinguishing three main types of platforms: marketplace, on‐demand, and digital placement agencies. First, the paper argues that the distinctive features of each digital platform business model have differentiated impacts on working conditions in terms of access to tasks, remuneration, flexibility and means of control. This differentiation allows us to understand what is transformative and what is continuous in platforms' precarization or formalisation of care work and working conditions of carers, mainly women and migrants. Each business model has its differentiated outcomes in terms of labour control and reorganization of women's and migrants' reproductive work. Second, more broadly, while digital care platforms may have contributed to facilitating workers' access to jobs, reducing transaction costs and standardising processes, this has often been through the creation of more flexible and insecure forms of work and to increased market pressures. Therefore, this study contributes to existing research addressing the degree of formalization of labour relations in digital platform work through a nuanced analysis of their business models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the surge of interest in platform cooperatives, we have a limited understanding of the dynamics of platform worker‐member participation in these cooperatives. Drawing on interviews with 21 senior leaders and founders of platform worker cooperatives, we investigate the dynamics of platform worker‐member participation, finding that these cooperatives experience some successes and many challenges. We then build theory about how four distinct features of platform worker cooperatives—the facilitation of multihoming, the physically untethered nature of work, the relatively high importance of scale as a strategic imperative, and the relatively low importance of initial platform worker‐member investment—influence these participation dynamics. We find that the platform and worker cooperative organisational models are in tension with one another when brought together within a platform worker cooperative, leading to positive and negative effects on participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada boasts some of the most highly educated migrants in the world, but it is well recognised that these migrants face many labour market barriers to gainful employment despite their experience and qualification. Administrative data indicate that the proportion of gig workers is considerably higher among migrants, yet little is known about the various perceived and desired pathways of migrants who choose to pursue platform work. In this inductive, qualitative study, we interviewed 35 platform workers in Canada regarding why and how they turned to such forms of work and how it fits their overall plans for integrating into the Canadian labour market. Adopting a grounded theory approach, we found six pathways into platform work ranging from those who feel in control of the situation as a means to an end, to those who feel trapped in it, unable to find alternatives. We question how these pathways relate to macro factors (e.g. immigration status, professional status), meso factors (e.g. education and skills, networks) or micro factors (e.g. stage in life cycle, aspirations). In our analysis, we consider the critical insights offered by scholars on racial and platform capitalism in understanding the factors impacting migrants' pathways into platform work in Canada. Our findings suggest that these structural inequalities are further perpetuated within platform work, even though in theory Canada's immigration system is merit-based with emphasis on high human capital. Migrants' engagement in platform work is a piece of a larger puzzle of segmented labour markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The occupational health burden and mechanisms that link gig work to health are understudied. We described injury and assault prevalence among food delivery gig workers in New York City (NYC) and assessed the effect of job dependence on injury and assault through work-related mechanisms and across transportation modes (electric bike and moped versus car). Data were collected through a 2022 survey commissioned by the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection among delivery gig workers between October and December 2021 in NYC. We used modified Poisson regression models to estimate the adjusted prevalence rate ratio associations between job dependence and injury and assault. Of 1650 respondents, 66.9% reported that food delivery gig work was their main or only job (i.e., fully dependent). About 21.9% and 20.8% of respondents reported being injured and assaulted, respectively. Injury and assault were more than twice as prevalent among two-wheeled drivers, in comparison to car users. Fully dependent respondents had a 1.61 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.20, 2.16) and a 1.36 (95% CI 1.03, 1.80) times greater prevalence of injury and assault, respectively, than partially dependent respondents after adjusting for age, sex, race and ethnicity, language, employment length, transportation mode, and weekly work hours. These findings suggest that fully dependent food delivery gig workers, especially two-wheeled riders, are highly vulnerable to the negative consequences of working conditions under algorithmic management by the platforms. Improvements to food delivery gig worker health and safety are urgently needed, and company narratives surrounding worker autonomy and flexibility need to be revisited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution presents an overview of the challenges involved in ensuring that persons performing platform work (as either employees, self-employed, or in a third category) are able to effectively access unemployment insurance protection. It also addresses the specific approaches taken by European countries to tackle these challenges, relying especially on the contributions to this special issue on unemployment protection for the self-employed and platform workers. After presenting a brief definition of platform work, the contribution provides an overview of the main challenges linked to unemployment protection insurance posed by the features of platform work; we use primarily the Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed as an evaluative framework. These challenges relate to both formal exclusion (due to classification as self-employed or marginal work) and effective exclusion (due to difficulties meeting minimum work requirements and lack of transparency on algorithmic management and platform work). The contribution then analyses some of the main approaches taken by European countries to address such challenges. Actions targeting platform work comprise (a) employment status reclassification; (b) establishment of a presumption of an employment relationship; (c) the setting of requirements to inform on the use of algorithmic management; (d) facilitation of transparency on platform work information; and (e) exemption from formal social security coverage of some forms of (marginal) platform work. General approaches with consequences for the unemployment insurance protection of platform workers include the application of the same criteria for access to unemployment benefits across employment statuses, as well as greater leniency on these criteria for certain forms of non-standard work. The contribution ends with a conclusion, which highlights the main gaps in unemployment insurance protection for platform work, and discusses avenues for action regarding platform work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses whether self-employed and platform workers in Denmark have effective access to the unemployment insurance scheme. The Danish case is intriguing in a comparative context. Unlike other European States, it has been possible in Denmark for the self-employed to formally access the unemployment scheme since 1976. The system is also interesting as it is rather flexible, and was recently adapted to meet the challenges of changing work patterns and an increase in atypical forms of work, such as platform work. Yet, it is argued that important barriers to effective coverage remain. Some barriers, such as the voluntary character of the insurance and its eligibility criteria, are common to all persons with low and irregular work. Other barriers are specific to the self-employed and relate to the conditions for proving the closing down of business, and to waiting periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether they are self-employed, atypical employees, or self-employed using an umbrella company, there is still almost no social protection against unemployment or partial loss of activity in Switzerland for platform workers. The same can be said for the self-employed in general. This contribution shows that platform workers, irrespective of their exact legal status, and the self-employed in general, risk sanctions for taking on unsuitable work, for being insufficiently available for decent work or unable to prove a loss of income. However hard they try, they cannot even contribute to a voluntary unemployment insurance scheme. We show that the Swiss social protection scheme, a product of years of federal direct democracy, is hardly able to adapt to the fast-moving platform work environment, thus increasing the risks of precariousness and the burden on the cantons' social assistance for the next generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the broader discussion on how to organize protection in the future of work, social partners sought to tackle the question of whether on-location platform workers are employees or freelancers. Extant literature investigating responses to platform work concentrates on institutions as main explanatory factor. While this provides valuable insights, it overlooks actors' creativity and motivation as factors that allow to break away with existing constraints. This paper tackles such a shortcoming by developing a theoretical angle that looks at how uncertain actors actively shape institutions through learning processes. Using a qualitative methodology, it compares Danish and Dutch social partners' responses to the question of platform workers' contract classification. It finds that Danish social partners agreed on the need to shelter the centrality of collective bargaining for labour market regulation, while their Dutch functional equivalent stressed the urgency to re-think the way flexibility and protection are linked. Positions of Dutch social partners were considerably more polarized than in the Danish case. This work contributes to the i) scholarship on social partners and non-standard work in contemporary capitalist economies and ii) understanding of how the relationship between protection and flexibility is being re-defined in view of the future of work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the new trends in modern economies is the development of platform-mediated work (PMW), also known as the gig economy. The current article aims to discuss the results of the original survey to determine the number and structure of gig workers among the adult residents of Poland; this discussion is based on the broader context of the existing knowledge on the subject pertaining to society and also focuses on the plans for the future. This article is based on the systematic literature review and the findings of the survey conducted on a representative nationwide sample of 3,165 Polish residents aged 18–70. The survey carried out in July 2021, showed that, in Poland, online or offline PMW was performed by about 16% of the investigated population over the year and by about 8% over the month. Moreover, an increase in the interest in platform work is expected. PMW is a relatively rare phenomenon, which is difficult to measure. The present article proposes a research approach that can be used to establish the prevalence and prospects of PMW in Poland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gig economy, encompassing on-demand work via platforms, has grown exponentially with significant consequences for the interpreting industry. Arguing that this tendency of the interpreting industry towards gig work reflects wider shifts in both labour-capital relations and the role of technology in the economy, this study explores 'gig' interpreting work from a labour process theory perspective. Leveraging a qualitative case study of three platforms in Northwestern Europe, as well as interviews with platform companies' managers and interpreters, the study indicates that platformisation is impacting business models, organisation, and intermediation of interpreting work, with implications for interpreters' working conditions. The study finds that engaging in platform work exposes interpreters to risks related to monetary factors, algorithmic control, individualisation of employment relations, on-demand availability, and subjugation to a digital form of supply-demand intermediation. In contrast, platform companies push towards maximising interests of profit and flexibility, harnessing the potential of gig work as the natural, entrepreneurial extension of interpreters' self-employment status. The study contributes to interpreting and sociological studies on workplace developments in digital capitalism, suggesting that the configuration of interpreting in platform-mediated production lubricates an exploitative labour-capital relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

En este artículo se discute el trabajo mediado por plataformas a partir del examen de las características de los trabajos de conductores y repartidores. Con base en el análisis de los nuevos atributos de este tipo de trabajo, que implican para los trabajadores una regresión en cuanto a los derechos laborales y sociales, así como su reciente expansión a muchas otras actividades, el texto también busca discutir el significado de estas nuevas formas de trabajo para el capitalismo.

Forms of algorithmic management (AM) play an essential role in organizing food-delivery work by deploying artificial intelligence-based systems to coordinate driver routes. Given the risks of precarity and threats posed by AM, which are typically related to (migrant) platform work, the question arises to what extent structures of co-determination can positively shape this type of work and the technologies involved. Based on an in-depth case study within a large food-delivery company, this article is guided by two questions: (1) How do companies use algorithm-based management and performance control, and how do the couriers perceive them? (2) What priorities, strategies, resources, and achievements do works councils and trade unions have with regard to co-determination practices? Our analyses indicate that algorithmic management poses problems of non-transparency and information asymmetry, which in turn call for new forms of and procedures for co-determination. Our study does not find evidence that AM practices aim to individually profile and discipline couriers. The main challenges for the works council and trade unions arise from the couriers’ generally precarious working and employment conditions; data- and AM-related issues do not represent the central area of conflict. However, our study identifies new demands regarding the co-determination of AM and underlines the importance of institutional regulation at the legal and sectoral level.

The development of the digital economy is leading to significant changes in labour and employment worldwide. These changes include transformations in the traditional employment structure, increased labour mobility, and use of nonstandard forms of employment. Online platform work, a new and rapidly developing form of employment, is still a small part of the overall labour market. However, it is a clear sign of technological change and globalisation. The relevance of studying platform work is due to its rapid development and the need to understand its socio-economic consequences (e.g. reduced social security of workers). In addition, the issues of statistical evaluation and the development of effective strategies for regulating platform work are becoming increasingly important. The aim of the article is to identify the peculiarities of platform work in the Republic of Belarus and to propose ways to improve its assessment and regulation. The article examines the directions of transformation in the sphere of labour and employment in the conditions of digitalisation of the economy, analyses the trends in the development of platform work in the world and in the Republic of Belarus, and identifies the peculiarities of the formation of information on platform work. Based on the results of the study, the authors developed recommendations to improve the assessment and regulation of platform work in the Republic of Belarus. These recommendations include changes in legal and regulatory acts; improvements in the collection of statistical information; in-depth studies of platform work; creation of a special body (council) for the development of platform work in the Republic of Belarus.

Background: The present study aimed to analyze several aspects of the working conditions and health status of platform workers in the Republic of Korea, such as ergonomic and emotional hazards. We also compared the health status of the platform workers with that of the general population. Methods: A total of 1,000 platform workers participated in this survey from August 7 to August 17, 2022. The participants included 400 designated drivers, 400 food-delivery drivers, and 200 housekeeping managers. A face-to-face survey with a structured questionnaire was conducted by researchers who had received specific instructions. The focus of the survey extended to the work environment, encompassing factors such as workplace violence, as well as physical, chemical, and ergonomic hazards. Health-related data for the previous year were also collected, covering a range of issues such as hearing problems, skin problems, musculoskeletal symptoms, headaches, injuries, mental health issues, and digestive problems. Subsequently, we compared the health symptom data of the responders with those of the general population in the Republic of Korea. Results: Platform workers, including designated drivers, food-delivery drivers, and housekeeping managers, existed in the blind spot of social insurance, facing frequent exposure to physical and chemical hazards, ergonomic risk factors, and direct or indirect violence. The prevalence of health problems, including musculoskeletal symptoms, general fatigue, and depressive symptoms, in each occupational group was statistically higher than that in the general population after standardization for age and gender. Conclusion: The results revealed unfavorable working environment and inferior occupational health of platform workers compared with those of the general population.

Abstract Background Globalization of platform work has become a challenge for wider social and employment relations and wellbeing of workers, yet on-location work remains governed also by local regulatory context. Understanding common challenges across countries and potential for regulatory measures is essential to enhance health and wellbeing of those who work in platform economy. Our comparative study on platform work analyzed concerns of Uber drivers in three cities with a different regulatory and policy context. Methods Drawing from current understanding on employment and precarity as social determinants of health we gathered comparative documentary and contextual data on regulatory environment complemented with key informant views of regulators, trade unions, and platform corporations (N = 26) to provide insight on the wider regulatory and policy environment. We used thematic semi-structured interviews to examine concerns of Uber drivers in Helsinki, St Petersburg, and London (N = 60). We then analysed the driver interviews to identify common and divergent concerns across countries. Results Our results indicate that worsening of working conditions is not inevitable and for drivers the terms of employment is a social determinant of health. Drivers compensated declining pay with longer working hours. Algorithmic surveillance as such was of less concern to drivers than power differences in relation to terms of work. Conclusions Our results show scope for regulation of platform work especially for on-location work concerning pay, working hours, social security obligations, and practices of dismissal.

Copyright of Politica y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This review seeks to present a comprehensive picture of recent discussions in the social sciences of the anticipated impact of AI on the world of work. Issues covered include: technological unemployment, algorithmic management, platform work and the politics of AI work. The review identifies the major disciplinary and methodological perspectives on AI's impact on work, and the obstacles they face in making predictions. Two parameters influencing the development and deployment of AI in the economy are highlighted: the capitalist imperative and nationalistic pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Luridica is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This qualitative study explores the conceptualisation of justice in the context of platform work, focusing on the dimensions of distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational justice. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with platform-based food delivery couriers in Taiwan, the study extends the organisational justice theory to platform work, showing how the dimensions of justice remain highly relevant in platform work, despite its individualised work organisation and algorithm-mediated transactions. The study highlights the influence of legal categorisations on distributive justice perceptions, while uncovering how perceptions of procedural justice had been undermined in relation to task allocation, fee calculations, and the lack of voice and consultation. Furthermore, it underscores the significance of dignity, respect, transparency, and explainability in interpersonal and informational justice within the platform work context. The theoretical and empirical contributions provide insights for scholars, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to better understand and address justice concerns within the rapidly expanding platform work sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdwork platforms have been widely celebrated as challenging gendered labor market inequalities through new digitally mediated possibilities for reconciling work, home, and family. This paper interrogates those claims and explores the wider implications of digital labor platforms for an expansive work–family research agenda stubbornly rooted in formal modes of employment in the "analogue" economy. Based on ethnographic research with women platform workers in the UK (using PeoplePerHour, Upwork, Freelancer, Fiverr, and Copify), the paper asks: what are women crowdworkers' lived experiences of integrating paid work and family relative to formal employment? And what coping tactics have women developed to reduce gendered work–family conflicts on digital labor platforms? In response to these research questions, the paper makes three contributions. First, it offers a critical review of recent commentary to theorize how disruptive innovations by digital labor platforms to recast long‐standing definitions of "work", "workers", "managers", and "employers" have served to position platforms and platform workers as somehow outside the analytical gaze of the expansive work–family research agenda. Second, it extends a growing alternative work–family analysis of platform work to examine the kinds of "work–life balance" (WLB) provision available to women crowdworkers in the absence of an employer; and how women's experiences of algorithmically mediated and contradictory work–family outcomes further challenge widespread claims of new platform work–life "flexibilities". Third, the paper points to exciting and urgent possibilities for advancing and recentering work–family research through new engagements with platforms, algorithmic management, and "independent" platform workers in support of feminist activism and campaigning around WLB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Globalization of platform work has become a challenge for wider social and employment relations and wellbeing of workers, yet on-location work remains governed also by local regulatory context. Understanding common challenges across countries and potential for regulatory measures is essential to enhance health and wellbeing of those who work in platform economy. Our comparative study on platform work analyzed concerns of Uber drivers in three cities with a different regulatory and policy context. Methods: Drawing from current understanding on employment and precarity as social determinants of health we gathered comparative documentary and contextual data on regulatory environment complemented with key informant views of regulators, trade unions, and platform corporations (N = 26) to provide insight on the wider regulatory and policy environment. We used thematic semi-structured interviews to examine concerns of Uber drivers in Helsinki, St Petersburg, and London (N = 60). We then analysed the driver interviews to identify common and divergent concerns across countries. Results: Our results indicate that worsening of working conditions is not inevitable and for drivers the terms of employment is a social determinant of health. Drivers compensated declining pay with longer working hours. Algorithmic surveillance as such was of less concern to drivers than power differences in relation to terms of work. Conclusions: Our results show scope for regulation of platform work especially for on-location work concerning pay, working hours, social security obligations, and practices of dismissal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to examine if and how the reclassification of platform workers from self-employment status to employment status can provide them with adequate social security protection. Little is known about how this transition would guarantee platform workers adequate social protection within the social protection scheme for employees. National social security schemes, in particular income replacement benefit schemes, often (still) depart from the standard employment relationship, leading to lower protection for atypical work forms. Platform workers combine several of the characteristics of atypical forms of work, such as low earnings, irregular working patterns and working. Integrating platform workers into employee social security schemes faces additional challenges due to the online nature of their work, algorithmic management, high levels of unpaid labor, and employer identification difficulties. This paper focuses on unemployment protection, as EU Member States struggle to provide adequate protection for workers with irregular work patterns and income fluctuations, in the case of (short term) income replacement benefits. By constructing nine ideal work patterns reflective of diverse nature of platform work and current practices among platform work, we analyse how different types of 'employed' platform workers may fare within the legislation of three EU countries (Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands). This approach allows us to assess the applicability of unemployment protection to different working patterns among 'employed' platform workers, considering formal, effective, and adequate access to unemployment schemes as outlined in the Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed (2019). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the issue of self-employed platform workers’ access to collective labour rights from the perspective of international law (ILO) and supranational European law (EU and Council of Europe). In this regard, the paper addresses the right to collective bargaining, the right to strike and the collective right to information and consultation. The main finding is that at the current stage, the relevant international and European legal framework is not providing access of self-employed platform workers to all examined collective labour rights. In light of the analysed legal developments the binary divide “has fallen” (for those self-employed platform workers who fulfil the 2022 Guidelines criteria) regarding access to collective bargaining. Therefore, as argued in the paper, also access to the right to strike should be ensured for the latter platform workers due to the purposeful interconnectedness and inseparability of both rights. Nonetheless, the binary divide is remaining “firm” regarding access to collective information and consultation rights. The latter remain accessible (including considering the Platform Work Directive proposal) only to platform workers with a subordinate “worker” status. However, as argued in the paper, the possibility to drop the binary divide (at least regarding certain matters) also in relation to collective information and consultation rights (in the context of platform work) should be seriously considered.

Research on platform work has primarily focused on analyzing how algorithmic management influences working conditions by empowering platforms to govern digitally-delivered services. However, prior research has overlooked the crucial aspect of how algorithmic management underlies platforms’ use of diverse contractual forms of employment available in the labor markets from where they source their workforces. Bridging this gap is vital to understanding how labor platforms integrate algorithm management, which employs digitally programmed procedures for coordinating and governing labor input, with various contractual employment structures influenced by regulations and collective actors such as trade unions. Coined as algorithm governance, this phenomenon represents the fusion of algorithm management with contractual employment frameworks, emanating from labor market regulations and policies. This essay pioneers the concept of algorithm governance, illuminating its ontological capacity to enrich debates on algorithm management. Algorithm governance thus explains how algorithm management intricately shapes working conditions by influencing the use of diverse contractual employment forms within the labor market.

The interposition of a digital platform between consumers and workers providing services, even of a very traditional nature, has led to the creation of a (relatively) new business model, where there is an attempt to deny providers access to rights and protections typical of labour law; among these, collective rights. My intervention aims to offer a comparison between the Italian legal system, on one hand, and the American and British ones on the other, demonstrating how the former, unlike the latter, thanks to the support provided by the workers’ statute to freedom and union activity in workplaces, has managed to provide the necessary tools to effectively address the aforementioned challenges.

This article examines how trade unions and self-organised worker groups have deployed digital organising tools to collectivise gig work, focusing on rideshare and food delivery platforms. It demonstrates the successful actions of worker representatives to improve the working conditions and legal position of platform-based rideshare and food delivery workers in several countries, through: coordinated mobilisation to disrupt the operations of platforms and build campaigns for increased regulation of platform work; strategic litigation to establish useful legal precedents, attract public attention and build solidarity among like-minded workers; and negotiating collective agreements on behalf of gig workers. While deficiencies are identified in the collective bargaining activities of some unions, the article concludes that unions and grass-roots worker groups have played a critical role in contesting the contracting model which lies at the core of gig worker exploitation – and helping them to martial the power obtained through resistance and collective action.