A Modern Guide To Labour and the Platform Economy

377 Pages·2021·2.741 MB·English

by  Jan Drahokoupil (editor), Kurt Vandaele (editor)

© Editors and Contributors Severally 2021
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
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Cheltenham
Glos GL50 2JA
UK
Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
William Pratt House
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Northampton
Massachusetts 01060
USA
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021943470
This book is available electronically in the
Political Science and Public Policy subject collection
http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/9781788975100
ISBN 978 1 78897 509 4 (cased)
ISBN 978 1 78897 510 0 (eBook)
Jan Drahokoupil and Kurt Vandaele - 9781788975100
Contents
List of figures viii
List of tables ix
List of contributors x
Acknowledgements xviii
List of abbreviations xix
1 Introduction: Janus meets Proteus in the platform economy 1
Jan Drahokoupil and Kurt Vandaele
PART I CONTEXT AND ISSUES
2 The business models of labour platforms: Creating an
uncertain future 33
Jan Drahokoupil
3 Moving on, out or up: The externalization of work to B2B
platforms 49
Pamela Meil and Mehtap Akgüç
4 Measuring the platform economy: Different approaches to
estimating the size of the online platform workforce 66
Agnieszka Piasna
5 A historical perspective on the drivers of digital labour platforms 81
Gérard Valenduc
6 The platform economy at the forefront of a changing world
of work: Implications for occupational health and safety 96
Pierre Bérastégui and Sacha Garben
7 How place and space matter to union organizing in the
platform economy 112
Benjamin Herr, Philip Schörpf and Jörg Flecker
v
Jan Drahokoupil and Kurt Vandaele - 9781788975100
vi A modern guide to labour and the platform economy
PART II REGULATING PLATFORM WORK
8 Embedding platforms in contemporary labour law 129
Valerio De Stefano and Mathias Wouters
9 The regulation of platform work in the European Union:
Mapping the challenges 145
Sacha Garben
10 Workers, platforms and the state: The struggle over digital
labour platform regulation 162
Sai Englert, Mark Graham, Sandra Fredman, Darcy du
Toit, Adam Badger, Richard Heeks and Jean-Paul Van Belle
11 Trade union responses to platform work: An evolving
tension between mainstream and grassroots approaches 177
Simon Joyce and Mark Stuart
PART III CASE STUDIES ACROSS THE GLOBE:
ONLINE LABOUR PLATFORMS
12 The uneven potential of online platform work for human
development at the global margins 194
Mark Graham, Vili Lehdonvirta, Alex J. Wood, Helena
Barnard, Isis Hjorth and David Peter Simon
13 From outsourcing to crowdsourcing: Assessing the
implications for Indian workers of different outsourcing strategies 209
Janine Berg, Uma Rani and Nora Gobel
14 The geographic and linguistic variety of online labour
markets: The cases of Russia and Ukraine 225
Mariya Aleksynska, Andrey Shevchuk and Denis Strebkov
PART IV CASE STUDIES ACROSS THE GLOBE:
LOCATION-BASED LABOUR PLATFORMS
15 Aliada and Alia: Contrasting for-profit and non-profit
platforms for domestic work in Mexico and the United States 242
Andrea Santiago Páramo and Carlos Piñeyro Nelson
Jan Drahokoupil and Kurt Vandaele - 9781788975100
Contents vii
16 The role of worker collectives among app-based food
delivery couriers in France, Germany and Norway: All the
same or different? 258
Kristin Jesnes, Denis Neumann, Vera Trappmann and
Pauline de Becdelièvre
17 The pitfalls and promises of successfully organizing
Foodora couriers in Toronto 274
Raoul Gebert
18 Labour management and resistance among platform-based
food delivery couriers in Beijing 290
Jack Linchuan Qiu, Ping Sun and Julie Chen
19 Struggles over the power and meaning of digital labour
platforms: A comparison of the Vienna, Berlin, New York
and Los Angeles taxi markets 308
Hannah Johnston and Susanne Pernicka
20 Passenger transport in Australia: Injury compensation,
public policy and the health pandemic 323
David Peetz
PART V CLOSING THOUGHTS
21 Institutional experimentation and the challenges of
platform labour 339
Maria Figueroa
Index 350
Jan Drahokoupil and Kurt Vandaele - 9781788975100
Figures
3.1 Trend in Online Labour Index by occupation 54
13.1 Geographical distribution of Indian crowdworkers 215
13.2 Distribution of hourly pay: Online and offline work by sex 219
14.1 The multidimensionality of digital online labour markets.
Example of English, Russian and Ukrainian linguistic spaces 231
18.1 Order status in the app (visible to customers) 298
viii
Jan Drahokoupil and Kurt Vandaele - 9781788975100
Tables
3.1 Types of task and their distribution through platforms 59
5.1 Information communication technology-enabled flexible
work forms 86
12.1 Labour oversupply on one major online labour platform 200
13.1 Percentage of workers reporting that they work long or
unsocial hours, by sex 216
13.2 Hourly earnings, paid and unpaid work, by sex (in US$) 218
14.1 Structure of online workers by type of market: local,
regional or international 234
15.1 Domestic workers in Mexico and the United States 244
18.1 The seven levels of knights in Baidu Delivery 299
18.2 Allowances for special order deliveries in Meituan 300
ix
Jan Drahokoupil and Kurt Vandaele - 9781788975100
Contributors
Mehtap Akgüç is Senior Researcher at the European Trade Union Institute in
Brussels, Belgium. Her research interests include labour markets, inequalities,
migration and mobility, the green and circular economy and economic devel-
opment. She has contributed to various projects on employment and social pol-
icies, social dialogue, migration, the platform economy, social innovation and
trade. Mehtap has a PhD in economics from Toulouse School of Economics
in France.
Mariya Aleksynska is Economist at the OECD Development Centre. Mariya
holds a PhD in economics from Bocconi University. She is a former ILO
officer, a former CEPII researcher and a former lecturer. Her main areas of
work include labour migration, labour market institutions and work in the
platform economy.
Adam Badger is Researcher for the Fairwork project. His research focuses
on the lived experience of work for those in the platform economy and on
the manifestations of algorithmic management in everyday working life. He
explores the role of technology and other components of contemporary work
in addition to the ways in which workers are beginning to resist through, and
beyond, their work practice. He is an active member of the European Network
on Digital Labour.
Helena Barnard is Director of the doctoral programme at the Gordon Institute
of Business Science at the University of Pretoria. She studies how knowledge
moves between more and less developed countries, particularly in Africa,
with a particular interest in internet-enabled organizational practices and
innovation.
Pierre Bérastégui is Researcher at the European Trade Union Institute. He
holds a PhD in cognitive ergonomics and an MSc in industrial and organi-
zational psychology. He is also Lecturer at the University of Liège where he
teaches ergonomics. His fields of research include psychosocial risks, muscu-
loskeletal disorders, fatigue-related risk management and digitalization. He is
also a member of the Tools and Awareness Raising Advisory Group.
Janine Berg is Senior Economist with the Conditions of Work and Equality
Department of the International Labour Office in Geneva, Switzerland. She
x
Jan Drahokoupil and Kurt Vandaele - 9781788975100
Contributors xi
is the author of several books and numerous articles on employment, labour
market institutions and the digital transformation of work.
Julie (Yujie) Chen is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Communication,
Culture, Information and Technology and holds a graduate appointment at the
Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto, Canada. She is interested
in digital labour studies, the political economy of media and communications
and critical data studies. She is the lead author of Super-sticky WeChat and
Chinese society (2018) and the co-author of Media and management (2021).
Pauline de Becdelièvre holds a PhD in industrial relations. She is Assistant
Professor at École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay where her research is on
independent workers. She has published several papers on trade unions and
careers and has been a visiting scholar at Florida State University to study
unions.
Valerio De Stefano is BOFZAP Research Professor of Labour Law at KU
Leuven, Belgium, where he does research on non-standard employment,
work in the platform economy, technology and fundamental labour rights. He
obtained his PhD at Bocconi University where, after his doctorate, he received
a postdoctoral fellowship for four years (2011–2014). From 2014 to 2017,
Valerio worked as an officer of the International Labour Office in Geneva.
At KU Leuven, he leads a team of young researchers working on labour and
technology issues.
Jan Drahokoupil is Senior Researcher at the European Trade Union Institute
where he coordinates research on digitalization and the future of work. His
publications include ‘The limits of foreign-led growth: demand for skills by
foreign and domestic firms’ (with Brian Fabo, 2020) and ‘The challenge of
digital transformation in the automotive industry: jobs, upgrading and the
prospects for development’ (2020).
Darcy du Toit is Co-Investigator on the Fairwork project. He is also Emeritus
Professor at the University of the Western Cape, and former dean of law, and
currently coordinates a new niche area in the Faculty of Law, Labour Law
4.0. His research has focused on the impact of digitalization on labour rights,
changing forms of work, discrimination in the workplace, workplace democra-
tization, employment equity, strike law and domestic work.
Sai Englert is Lecturer in the Institute for Area Studies, Leiden University,
where he teaches political economy of the Middle East. His research focuses
on the labour movement in Israel, settler colonialism, accumulation by dispos-
session, the transformation of work and anti-Semitism. He is on the editorial
board of Historical Materialism and is Editor at Notes from Below.
Jan Drahokoupil and Kurt Vandaele - 9781788975100
xii A modern guide to labour and the platform economy
Maria Figueroa is Dean of the Harry Van Arsdale Jr. School of Labor Studies
at the State University of New York. Her work has involved applied research
and technical assistance in the area of non-standard work arrangements,
including digitally mediated employment. She has worked on several projects
commissioned by unions, employer groups, government agencies and private
foundations. Maria has more than 25 years of experience in labour and industry
research, having worked as a senior analyst and researcher for national and
international organizations, including the Teamsters union and the United
Nations.
Jörg Flecker is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology of the
University of Vienna, Austria. His research areas are labour process analysis,
industrial relations, digitalization, social change and the political far right. He
is the editor of Space, place and global digital work (2016).
Sandra Fredman is Professor of Law at the University of Oxford. She is
a Fellow of the British Academy and Queen’s Council (honoris causa). She
has published widely and has numerous peer-reviewed publications in the
fields of gender equality, labour law and human rights. She is Co-Investigator
on the Fairwork project in South Africa.
Sacha Garben is Professor of European Union Law at the Legal Studies
Department of the College of Europe. She is furthermore an officer in the
European Commission, currently on special leave to be full time at the College
of Europe, and a replacement judge at the Amsterdam Court of Appeal. She
has published widely on a range of constitutional and substantive aspects of
European Union law and policy.
Raoul Gebert is Assistant Professor at Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec,
Canada, and holds a PhD in industrial relations from Université de Montréal.
Between 2012 and 2015 he served as chief of staff to the leader of the official
opposition in Canada’s parliament and then worked for the Friedrich-Ebert
Foundation in Washington, DC. He is affiliated to the Interuniversity Research
Centre on Globalization and Work (Centre de recherche interuniversitaire sur
la mondialisation et le travail) as co-researcher.
Nora Gobel is Junior Research Officer within the Research Department of the
International Labour Office in Geneva, Switzerland. She is currently working
on issues related to the digital economy.
Mark Graham is Professor of Internet Geography at the Oxford Internet
Institute and Director of the Fairwork Foundation. Together with Jamie
Jan Drahokoupil and Kurt Vandaele - 9781788975100