Does it pay to work? Unpaid labour in the platform economy

Pulignano, Valeria; Piasna, Agnieszka; Domecka, Markieta; Muszyński, Karol; Vermeerbergen, Lander

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4013358

Cited by 18 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…V. Pulignano platform workers spend waiting at customers' doors or restaurants severely impacts on their ability to organise their free time, and hence, should also be qualified as working time. 106 Finally, the CJEU has ruled that the travel time of mobile workers, who travel to and between jobs, constitutes working time -an outcome which may potentially extend to many platform workers. 107…”

Section: Working Hours Insecuritymentioning

confidence: 99%

The intersection of casual work and platform work: Lessons learned from the casual work agenda for the labour protection of platform workers

Durri

2023

European Labour Law Journal

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In recent years, the advent of platform work, i.e. work activities channelled through web platforms or apps, has been at the centre of discussions for being ‘an opportunity-generating machine’, and its darker side, that is the poor quality of working conditions associated with it, has also been discussed. Work patterns inherent in platform work, such as unpredictable work schedules and work insecurity (even for the next minute or hour), the lack of a stable income, and exclusion from even basic protections, have long been detected. They can be traced back in the daily work of dock workers in the late nineteenth century, but also in more contemporary forms of casual work, such as on-call work or zero-hours work. Accordingly, history seems to repeat itself, and even go to extremes with platform work. Against this background, this article focuses on the intersection of casual work and platform work, and explains that as a result of it, platform work can actually fall within the scope of broader regulatory strategies applicable to casual work, hereinafter the casual work agenda. The regulatory challenges deriving from the insecure nature of the work have already been dealt with by national and supranational regulators in the context of casual work. This article evaluates an already-available blueprint - the casual work agenda - in light of reducing the working hours, job (work), income, and employment status insecurity associated with platform work. To this end, it observes that a rich legal landscape exists in the Netherlands for addressing these insecurities. At the EU level, there are also insightful legal tools, prominent examples being the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive, the Fixed-Term Work Directive, and the Working Time Directive. They provide for important legal safeguards, especially in countering working time and job insecurity. This article also looks at the proposed EU Directive on Platform Work and notes that it overlooks the legal safeguards contained in these instruments. Having regard to this, it calls on EU policymakers to redefine this legal initiative in light of the best regulatory practices offered by the casual work agenda.

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Section: Working Hours Insecuritymentioning

confidence: 99%

The intersection of casual work and platform work: Lessons learned from the casual work agenda for the labour protection of platform workers

Durri

2023

European Labour Law Journal

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“…Parallelling Mick's interest in fair processes of performance management in networks characterised by blurred boundaries of management control, the latest research on digital labour is revealing major ambiguities from the perspective of organisational performance (clients and platform companies) and worker experience. New research investigates the relative influence of platform business strategy, algorithmic rules and client specifications in shaping workers' individual reputations (whether by performance, portfolio of past work, skill and experience, or punctuality) and points to adverse consequences for worker experiences and precarity (Pulignano et al., 2021). Moreover, workers registered with digital platforms often lack a formal grievance mechanism when their work is rejected (by the client or the algorithm).…”

Section: What Theoretical Insights For a Future Of Work Research Agenda?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, workers registered with digital platforms often lack a formal grievance mechanism when their work is rejected (by the client or the algorithm). They may be unable to independently develop or rebuild their reputation (or shape how it is perceived) and mostly experience relatively constrained autonomy over their work tasks and scheduling (ILO, 2021; Pulignano et al., 2021).…”

Section: What Theoretical Insights For a Future Of Work Research Agenda?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Fragmenting work: Theoretical contributions and insights for a future of work research and policy agenda

Grimshaw

Rubery

Cooke

et al. 2022

Human Res Mgmt Journal

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Mick Marchington's highly innovative research and writings on ‘Fragmenting Work’ have transformed our understanding of organisations, human resource management (HRM) and the world of work. He led a series of in‐depth case studies of networked organisations—including airport operations, supply chains, multi‐client call centres, public‐private partnerships and information technology outsourcing—and argued for the significance of inter‐organisational networks in directly informing HRM theory and also shaping HRM practice. The resulting highly cited body of published work captured and further developed Mick's intellectual interests in pluralism and complexity in relation to HRM theory. In this article, we reflect on Mick's theoretical contributions and also consider how core theoretical insights derived from the Fragmenting Work research programme can be applied to new questions about the future of work concerning digital platforms, career ladders and global supply chains.

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“…Likewise, platform workers are exposed to ‘client colonization’ (Gold and Mustafa, 2013) as they need to adapt their working time to comply with clients’ erratic and last-minute demands. Although platform workers may reject gigs requested by rude or untrustworthy clients, for example, they are the ones complaining the most about long and unpaid waiting times (Pulignano and Mará, 2021) for job acceptance or ‘prize money’ (Gerber, 2021). Similarly, under casual and flexible work arrangements with no guaranteed minimum number of working hours in nursing homes, carers have a tendency to work longer hours in order to maintain eligibility for access to in-work benefits and to receive good references when seeking subsequent employment (Rubery et al, 2015).…”

Section: The Analytical Framework Of ‘Grey Zone’mentioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘Grey Zone’ at the Interface of Work and Home: Theorizing Adaptations Required by Precarious Work

Pulignano

Morgan

2022

Work, Employment and Society

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This conceptual article develops a framework based on the ‘total social organization of labour’ for analysing the implications precarious work in the public sphere has for the reorganization of the private domestic sphere. The core proposition is that a ‘grey zone’ of unpaid labour exists which needs to be negotiated – or at least tolerated – within a household to engage in precarious paid work. A ‘grey zone’ is theorized as a necessary transition space under conditions of precarious work requiring temporal and spatial adaptations within the family household. The article explains how adaptations in ‘time’ and ‘space’ within a ‘grey zone’ context in the private domestic sphere entail new forms of unpaid labour. Employers have increasingly divested themselves of responsibilities to provide security through the wage relation; families and their pre-existing socio-economic position have adapted to support the unpaid labour necessary to access and survive under precarious work conditions.

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Does it pay to work? Unpaid labour in the platform economy

Cited by 18 publications

References 2 publications

The intersection of casual work and platform work: Lessons learned from the casual work agenda for the labour protection of platform workers

The intersection of casual work and platform work: Lessons learned from the casual work agenda for the labour protection of platform workers

Fragmenting work: Theoretical contributions and insights for a future of work research and policy agenda

The ‘Grey Zone’ at the Interface of Work and Home: Theorizing Adaptations Required by Precarious Work

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