Migrant labour in the ‘gig’ economy: progress or trap?
socialeurope.eu (17.04.2024) Platform work is often presented as a stepping-stone for migrant workers. It may not however feel so benign to them.
socialeurope.eu (17.04.2024) Platform work is often presented as a stepping-stone for migrant workers. It may not however feel so benign to them.
ilo.org (04.04,2024) While Kenya has made significant strides towards achieving gender equality, the findings of the report shows that significant gaps remain in the realm of digital labour platforms. Women in most sectors earn less than men and have lower access to social security benefits. The existing regulation fails to recognize most of the women workers on location-based and online platform work as employees, as a result excluding women from basic labor rights and protections.
consilium.europa.eu (11.03.2024) EU employment and social affairs ministers confirmed the provisional agreement reached on 8 February 2024 between the Council’s presidency and the European Parliament’s negotiators on the platform work directive. This EU legal act aims to improve working conditions and regulate the use of algorithms by digital labour platforms. The directive will make the use of algorithms in human resources management more transparent, ensuring that automated systems are monitored by qualified staff and that workers have the right to contest automated decisions.
ilo.org (31.12.2023) This paper discusses the expansion or penetration of digital economic activity in the context of developing economies, and what this may mean for economic or structural transformations for countries in the global South. We ask what possibilities new jobs and forms of work in the digital economy hold – in particular platform work – for the productive transformation of economies in ways that contribute to achieving the goals of human, inclusive and sustainable development. What are the impacts on work and workers in this process?
bnnbreaking.com (26.02.2024) The World Bank recommends mandatory retirement savings for digital platform workers in Malaysia to safeguard informal workers in the gig economy. Explore the challenges faced by informal workers and the government's response to ensure economic security.
ILO Working Paper 103(20.02.2024) The objective of this paper is to provide a panoramic description and analysis of the diversity of the new forms of employment that have been emerging in China, with the focus on their background, the main types, the status quo of labour rights protection, and the government's responses to the challenges of labour regulations brought by NFE. Finally, on the basis of the above, the paper puts forward corresponding policy recommendations on how to improve workers' protection in new forms of Employment.
Reuters (16.02.2024) Europe's attempt to give workers at Uber, Deliveroo and other online platforms more social and labour rights failed a second time after France and three other countries abstained from voting on the watered-down political deal. Belgium, the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, is unlikely to muster enough support for yet another attempt, especially as the European Parliament which has to endorse a final deal, gradually winds down ahead of elections in June.
huffingtonpost.fr (17.02.2024) La fin d’un travail de plus de deux ans ? Plusieurs pays ont bloqué ce vendredi 16 février l’adoption d’une législation européenne censée renforcer les droits des travailleurs des plateformes numériques comme Uber ou Deliveroo, mais largement vidée de sa substance. Parmi eux : la France ou l’Allemagne.
equaltimes.org (14.02.2024) In recent years, the platform model of capitalism has spread throughout the world, exacerbating precariousness, informality and the delocalisation of labour relations wherever it goes. This in turn has created the need for alternatives that counteract the instrumentalisation of emerging technologies to exploit workers. One viable alternative is platform cooperativism, a model of worker association that uses new technologies to ensure the well-being of workers rather than exploit them through algorithmic mechanisms of control.
European Parliament (17.01.2024) Although a provisional political agreement between the Council and Parliament was announced on 13 December 2023, 10 Member States could not endorse this agreement on 22 December 2023. The Belgian Presidency is seeking to revive informal discussions with the European Parliament so as to set a date for new negotiations. Platform work is an umbrella concept covering a heterogeneous group of economic activities completed through a digital platform.
ilo.org (01.02.2024) A new Law and Practice report, Realizing Decent Work in the Platform Economy , has been published by the ILO. The report marks a crucial milestone in the process that can lead to a new international labour standard on decent work in the platform economy. It will be discussed at the 2025 and 2026 International Labour Conferences.
India Today (29.01.2024) The proposed fund, outlined in the Social Security Code of 2020, represents a significant move towards providing universal social security for a wide range of workers.
Euractiv (12.01.2024) Last month, a coalition of EU countries blocked the provisional agreement on the Platform Workers Directive. But while the Belgian EU Council presidency wants to use the political deal as the starting point for future discussion, Paris wants a more comprehensive file reshaping.
Reuters (08.01.2024) The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden will release a final rule as soon as this week that will make it more difficult for companies to treat workers as independent contractors rather than employees that typically cost a company more, an administration official said. The U.S. Department of Labor rule, which was first proposed in 2022 and is likely to face legal challenges, will require that workers be considered employees entitled to more benefits and legal protections than contractors when they are "economically dependent" on a company.
worldbank.org (14.12.2023) The rise of “gig” or digital platform work globally has led to both enthusiasm for its potential to create lucrative employment for large numbers of people, as well as concern about its implications for worker protection that is often provided in more standard employment. While gig work platforms may not be akin to employers in standard work relationships, arrangements that do not obligate them to provide worker protection and social insurance contributions may leave several platform workers unprotected against a range of risks.
ILO Working paper 101 (20.12.2023) This paper seeks to explore the key emerging regulatory dimensions of platform work. It contextualizes the challenges associated with platform work as an expression of the consolidated features that, in the past decades, have been transforming the labour market: non-standardization and the deregulation of employment relationships.
EURACTIV.com (13.12.2023) The Platform Workers Directive is a bill to regulate the gig economy and ensure that workers of digital platforms like Deliveroo and Uber have the correct contractual status based on their treatment and working conditions. According to the European Commission, almost one in five platform workers ought to be reclassified from self-employed to full-time employees. The Directive intends to establish a harmonised mechanism to assess and operate contractual changes across the bloc.
consilium.europa.eu (13.12.2023)The Council and the European Parliament have reached a provisional agreement on a proposed directive to improve working conditions for platform workers. In the event that the deal struck today is confirmed by both institutions before going through the formal adoption procedure, it will help millions of them gain access to employment rights.
businessinsider.com (10.12.2023) Americans are flocking to the gig economy for extra cash — but it's not working out for all of them. While it's unclear how many people work as delivery drivers, babysitters, resellers, freelance writers, or one of many other gig jobs, experts told Business Insider that the number is growing — and that there's no sign of it slowing down. While these workers are likely happy to have extra income in their bank accounts, the gig economy might not be the solution to people's finances that some think it is.
ILO Working paper (Dec 2023) This paper takes food-delivery platforms as a case study in China to examine the impact of digital labour platforms on employment and presents findings in employment structure, employment relations, working conditions, wages, protection of workers and social insurance in the food-delivery sector.
ILO Working paper (05.12.2023) This paper examines the experiences of delivery workers on digital labor platforms in Chile and analyses the implications of the platform business model. It highlights challenges in working conditions and algorithmic management practices, which are crucial to address for ensuring decent work, as Chile moves towards implementing a new law to regulate platform work.
The Guardian (23.11.2023) On Tuesday, the supreme court ruled unanimously that Deliveroo riders are self-employed and do not have a right to collective bargaining. After seven years of legal battles, a case brought by the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) that began in Camden and Kentish Town, north London, finally reached the end of the road. For Deliveroo, the result is a substantial victory. The decision means the company is protected from the need to collectively bargain with a union over fundamental issues such as the lack of a guaranteed minimum wage.
OSE (2023) Often depicted as the epitome of the future of work in the digital society, working through digital platforms has triggered heated political and scientific debates in the field of labour relations and social protection. The business model of one specific type of platform, namely ‘on-location’ platforms such as Uber and Deliveroo, has been widely questioned (Casilli 2020; Srnicek 2017)
euractiv.com (31.10-2023) EU institutions are preparing for confrontation over the functioning of the legal presumption of employment, the most sensitive aspect of the Platform Workers Directive, in a trilogue next Thursday (9 November).
reuters.com (25.09.2023) A report by rights group ActionAid released earlier this year showed that gig work algorithms discriminated against women who were “unable to respond as quickly or work as many hours as men because of unpaid care responsibilities”. The report, citing a survey of more than 5,000 gig workers in 15 countries, also showed that women tend to work fewer hours than men - contributing to a wage gap - as safety concerns lead many to shun work that falls after dark or in risky locations