Digital Labour Platforms: A Need for International Regulation?

Non-Standard Forms of Employment: Regulating Digital Labor Platforms, 2022

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has confronted the Philippines with significant macroeconomic destabilization in 2020. The International Labour Organization (2021) concluded that the COVID-19 disrupted the labor market when the lockdown was imposed in Metro Manila that paralyzed the livelihood of millions of Filipinos from various sectors in both standard and non-standard forms of employment. Financial markets, corporate offices, businesses, and events that constitute the standard form of employment shut down their operations as measures to limit the spread of the virus resulting in a record low-3.1% in World Economic Growth (Ozili and Arun, 2020; ILO 2021; IMF, 2021). On the contrary, the COVID-19 is perceived to contribute to the growth in the gig economy since freelancers are already working from home before the lockdown (Struckell et al., 2021). The Philippines' gig economy had been thriving since before the pandemic due to the motivation brought by increased flexibility, the opportunity to determine their hours of work, preferred rates, and not have supervisors (Mia, 2020; Curiae, 2021).

2021

Platform-mediated work is a source of livelihood for millions of workers worldwide. However, because platforms typically classify workers as ‘independent contractors’, those workers are generally excluded from the scope of labor rights. This has a corrosive effect on working standards of platform workers, creating the need for an international regulatory framework to prevent a race to the bottom. To address this situation, the article proposes an outline for an International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention for the regulation of platform work going beyond the employee/independent contractor dichotomy. It identifies five core issues in the platform economy – low pay, poor working conditions, inaccessible and unreasonable contracts, unfair management, and a lack of representation – and demonstrates how existing ILO standards could be adapted to address these issues. The proposals are informed by the evidence collected by the Fairwork project through its participatory and multidisci...

2018

The emergence of online digital labour platforms has been one of the major transformations in the world of work over the past decade. This report provides one of the first comparative studies of working conditions on five major micro-task platforms that operate globally. It is based on an ILO survey covering 3,500 workers in 75 countries around the world and other qualitative surveys. The report analyses the working conditions on these micro-task platforms, including pay rates, work availability and intensity, social protection coverage and work–life balance. The report recommends 18 principles for ensuring decent work on digital labour platforms.

2017

Digital work platforms are transforming labor markets around the world. Firms that own, manage and deploy these work platforms have reframed employer–worker relations by defining their core business as the provision of the technology that enables certain services to be provided rather than the provision of those services, and offering their workers independent contractor arrangements rather than employee contracts. This has significant consequences in terms of wages, jobs security and other working conditions. Digital work platforms also increase worker welfare by offering unparalleled flexibility in setting work hours and most permit a workday to be segmented, allowing certain parts of the population who otherwise would not be able to work (due to other commitments or constraints) to have some source of income. At the same time, they pose significant challenges in the labor market. Companies replace employees with contract workers to control costs but this may lead to lower pay, be...

Labour & Law Issues, 2021

This paper critically addresses the changes brought by the digital economy and its digital platforms to Labour Law. It examines the concept of labour platforms and its typologies and models, including the critique of the online and offline work categories and offers other alternative solutions. It confronts the role of Labour Law, considering the perspectives of wage labour regulation in theses platforms, and reflects on the relation between precariousness, technology and its fetishes.

Progress in IS, 2023

One of the important innovations in the labor market in the last decade is the emergence and development of digital work platforms. Based on a review of scientific literature and materials, this paper presents the essence and definition of digital work platforms, types, and classification of services, business models of the platform and the scale of dissemination. The benefits and challenges of digital work platforms are also discussed in this manuscript. In the overview of the Georgian labor market, I have briefly outlined the available data on digital work platforms in Georgia. Digital work platforms in Georgia are at the initial stage of development. We believe that digital work platforms will play an important role in the labor market of Georgia in the future. However, according to our conclusion, the development of digital work platforms requires training of the necessary personnel, changes in the education system, employment status-related changes in the legislation, promotion of the development of relevant skills, e.g., foreign languages and IT, in society, and many more related adjustments.

Teka Komisji Prawniczej PAN Oddział w Lublinie, 2019

The article deals with the issue of trade unions' involvement in the issues of employment on Internet platforms. In the first section, there are general issues related to collective labour law and employment on the platform. The following section analyses the various forms of trade union involvement. The article contains the primary hypothesis that the critical condition for the regulation of fair and decent work on global Internet platforms is the activation of trade unions in the form of information activities and social dialogue in the form of collective bargaining.