Collective bargaining is the most appropriate tool to introduce detailed regulations specific to platform work. However, the status of platform workers (they are usually self-employed), combined with ...EU competition law, constitutes a significant restriction on their collective bargaining rights. Hence, the aim of this article is to prove the thesis that the presumption adopted in the Spanish regulation of recognising platform workers as workers in the strict sense would be a universal solution to the problem of ensuring proper labour protection for this group of workers.
Existing IS research on platform work has narrowly focused on the managerial operations of algorithmic management or its business implications. Limited research has paid attention to the scalar ...effects and societal implications of platform work. In this study, we address the phenomenon of ‘speed’ in the on‐demand economy through a qualitative study of Chinese food delivery workers. We construct a performative view of spatiotemporality to illustrate the reconfiguration of multiple spatiotemporal orders. The paper thus broadens the theorisation of time and space in IS research and provides a more nuanced and critical understanding of platform work against the backdrop of structural inequality in platform capitalism.
This qualitative industry case study evaluates job quality in the Australian platform-based food-delivery sector, one part of the growing gig economy where workers, as independent contractors, engage ...in digitally-enabled and controlled work that is remunerated on a piece rate basis. Using a multi-dimensional framework, we draw on worker accounts of economic security, autonomy and enjoyment to assess job quality. This study posits that to achieve a more refined picture of job quality, both objective and workers’ subjective understandings of work need to be understood in the context of their respective ‘fit’ in terms of individual circumstances, labour market alternatives and the broader socio-political context. This multi-level analysis problematises individual accounts that risk overemphasising the positive elements of platform-based work. Moreover, rather than sitting neatly in a Post- or Neo-Fordist extension of job quality, the findings reveal that the gig economy is a new juncture in capitalist production, the consequences of which need to be taken seriously by regulators, scholars, workers and other relevant stakeholders.
While the gig economy has expanded rapidly in the last decade, few have studied the psychological ramifications of working for an online labor platform. Guided by classical and modern theories of ...work and alienation, we investigate whether engagement in platform work is associated with an increased sense of powerlessness and isolation. We analyze data from two national surveys of workers from the Canadian Quality of Work and Economic Life Study in September 2019 (N = 2,460) and March 2020 (N = 2,469). Analyses reveal greater levels of powerlessness and loneliness among platform workers—a pattern that is not fully explained by their higher levels of financial strain. Additional analyses of platform activity reveal that rideshare driving is more strongly associated with powerlessness and isolation than engagement in online crowdwork. We interpret our findings in light of platform firms’ use of algorithmic control and distancing strategies that may undermine worker autonomy and social connection.
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.
The European Commission’s proposal for a Directive on improving working conditions for platform work is probably the most discussed and scrutinized draft of a potential European Union legislative act ...ever. Here, the Directive is analysed from the perspective of the Italian system. We assess the concrete impact at the national level and determine whether Italian lawmakers need to issue new statutes to comply with the Directive and, if so, how the Directive should be implemented properly at the national level. Possible impacts on the law’s interpretations by judges/authorities are considered. The analysis evaluates the Directive from the perspective of its effectiveness in reaching its main goal of “improving working conditions in platform work” in general and considering the Italian legal context in particular. This contribution focuses on Chapter II of the Directive on employment status. Overall, the Directive could alter the traditional classification of working relationships and reinforce the EU embracement of a dichotomic approach, splitting the working relationships into employment and autonomous work. Thus, Italian legal interpreters should commit to connecting their interpretations to those of the Court of Justice of the European Union in all litigations concerning the correct classifications of working relationships. Moreover, lawmakers should avoid a situation in which some platform workers are classified as self-employed within the Italian system when they fall under the Directive’s employment presumption.
This article reviews the individual and organizational implications of gig work using the emerging psychological contract between gig workers and employing organizations as a lens. We first examine ...extant definitions of gig work and provide a conceptually clear definition. We then outline why both organizations and individuals may prefer gig work, offer an in-depth analysis of the ways in which the traditional psychological contract has been altered for both organizations and gig workers, and detail the impact of that new contract on gig workers. Specifically, organizations deconstruct jobs into standardized tasks and gig workers adapt by engaging in job crafting and work identity management. Second, organizational recruitment of gig workers alters the level and type of commitment gig workers feel toward an employing organization. Third, organizations use a variety of nontraditional practices to manage gig workers (e.g., including by digital algorithms) and gig workers adapt by balancing autonomy and dependence. Fourth, compensation tends to be project-based and typically lacks benefits, causing gig workers to learn to be a "jack-of-all-trades" and learn to deal with pay volatility. Fifth, organizational training of gig workers is limited, and they adapt by engaging in self-development. Sixth, gig workers develop alternative professional and social relationships to work in blended teams assembled by organizations and/or adapt to social isolation. Challenges associated with these practices and possible solutions are discussed, and we develop propositions for testing in future research. Finally, we highlight specific areas for further exploration in future research.
In our introduction to this special issue on the gig economy, we provide some context to how and why this phenomenon should be studied, with a particular emphasis on Human Resource Management. We ...then describe the four articles that comprise the special issue, and we note some common themes. Our introduction concludes with some suggestions for future research on the gig economy.
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.
This paper extends research on algorithmic management by examining mechanisms of compliance. Algorithmic management has predominantly been analysed in terms of the exercise of disciplinary power over ...workers and rational control of labour. Facing algorithms, platform workers would be in a situation of fear, passivity and frustration. In this paper, we utilise the Foucauldian framework of ‘dispositive’ in order to reconceptualise platforms as exerting both rational and normative control. Based on a qualitative case study of the food‐delivery platform Deliveroo, we underscore that algorithmic rational control, although fallible, is being reinforced by techniques of subjectification. Several dispositives on the platform, such as the pay‐per‐delivery and shift picker systems, generate an active mobilisation of workers. Our discussion highlights the governmentality power of algorithmic management, which builds consent by promoting a hyper‐meritocratic ideal of justice.
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