barandbench.com (16.05.2024) The gig economy, a burgeoning sector, represents a paradigm shift in traditional employment models, offering flexibility and autonomy to workers across various industries. Despite its benefits, the sector's rapid growth, particularly in urban India, has highlighted significant regulatory gaps, especially concerning the protection of gig workers' basic rights. The informal nature of gig work, mediated through digital platforms, poses unique challenges in ensuring fair labour practices and safeguarding workers' rights.

WIEGO (23.10.2023) The extension of social protection to all workers, including those in the informal economy, is crucial to creating better quality employment. For this to happen, it is essential that financing for social protection is increased. A new scheme for financing social protection for gig workers in Rajasthan, India, could provide lessons for other workers in informal employment. WIEGO spoke to social activist Nikhil Dey to learn more.

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?

In Europe, as globally, platform work remains a growing phenomenon. This article explores how recent developments in Europe affect platform workers’ rights and access to social security. In particular, it considers recent steps toward the appropriate classification of certain workers, changes in working conditions, and the extension of new rights and responsibilities

euractiv (19.11.2021) The European Commission, which is due to present its proposal on platform workers on 8 December, faces a tricky balancing act: ensuring decent working conditions while maintaining the flexibility of a booming sector.

The Guardian (11.11.2020) Ballot measure exempting ride-sharing companies from treating drivers as employees could serve as model for future laws