Risk Shifts in the Gig Economy: The Normative Case for an Insurance Scheme against the Effects of Precarious Work*

Bieber, Friedemann; Moggia, Jakob

doi:10.1111/jopp.12233

Cited by 32 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Another study by Bieber and Moggia (2020) in United States revealed that the work-on-demand, a form of work in gig economy, has risen over the recent decades especially on a social level where there has been an increase in the granularity of work contracts in firms. This means firms only buy the exact amount of labour they need and at the particular moment they need it.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of the Gig Economy in the Insurance Sector

Kajwang¹

2022

JBSM

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Purpose: The recent rise in the gig economy has led to change in supply and demand of labour globally. People have opted to work as freelancers or contractors on projects of multiple companies. On the other hand, have also seen it beneficial to outsource for gig workers whenever they need them to work for a specific period since it has helped them cut on the labour costs of hiring permanent employees. The goal of this study is to identify and discuss the roles of the gig economy in the insurance sector. The purpose of this work is to enhance the reader’s understanding on what is a gig economy and its role in the insurance sector. Methodology: A desktop literature review was used for this purpose. Relevant seminal references and journal articles for the study were identified using Google Scholar. The inclusion criteria entailed papers that were not over five years old. Findings: The study concluded that gig workers are excluded from pool of benefits that permanent employees enjoy, such as insurance coverage, paid sick leaves, paid vacations and pension plans. Hence the gig economy has provided a business opportunity to the insurance sector to provide insurance benefits to gig workers especially where the social security and protections plans are mandatory. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study recommended that it is important for gig economy to partner with the insurance sector so as to provide mandatory social security and protection plans to all gig workers. In addition, the insurance sector should outsource for gig workers whenever they are needed since they have access to digital platforms that help them provide quality services to their customers.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of the Gig Economy in the Insurance Sector

Kajwang¹

2022

JBSM

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“…46 44 One possibility, in an article published after this one was submitted, requires that platforms pay larger social insurance contributions than regular employers, particularly when the work sold through the platform is of the more precarious sort. See Bieber & Moggia (2020). 45 Some empirical work on the preferences of platform workers suggests that while employee protections are desired by workers, there is some anxiety about how a platform might behave if granted the full powers of an employer.…”

Section: Freelancing and Employment As A Spectrummentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 44. One possibility, in an article published after this one was submitted, requires that platforms pay larger social insurance contributions than regular employers, particularly when the work sold through the platform is of the more precarious sort. See Bieber and Moggia (2020). …”

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confidence: 99%

On the (mis)classification of paid labor: When should gig workers have employee status?

Halliday

2021

Politics, Philosophy & Economics

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The emergence of so-called ‘gig work’, particularly that sold through digital platforms accessed through smartphone apps, has led to disputes about the proper classification of workers: Should platform workers be classified as independent contractors (as platforms typically insist), or as employees of the platforms through which they sell labor (as workers often claim)? Such disputes have urgency due to the way in which employee status is necessary to access certain benefits such as a minimum wage, sick pay, and so on. In addition, classification disputes have philosophical significance because their resolution requires some foundational account of why the law should make a distinction between employed and freelance workers in the first place. This paper aims to fill this foundational gap. Central to it is the idea that employment involves a worker ceding certain freedoms in return for a degree of security, at least with respect to income. Insofar as the misclassification objection has force against digital platforms, it is when a platform is attempting to have it both ways: Workers are giving up freedom but not being granted a proportionate increase in security. As I shall explain, this approach offers some flexibility as to how actual disputes might be resolved – justice may be indifferent between whether platforms offer greater security or permit workers greater freedom, provided they do at least one of these things.

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“…I have presented a general theory of labour-service and shown how its interaction with property manifests the paradoxical features of exploitation and collaboration. While other scholars have also proposed that platforms exploit the free labour of users in creating content and being responsible for their transactions (Bieber and Moggia 2020;Huws 1998;Terranova 2000), they differ in their theoretical scope and conclusions. Bieber and Moggia focus mainly on the labour of bearing uncertainty, and their argument is pertinent for those who pursue sharing activities as an income-generating exercise, but not so much for those who engage sporadically or gratuitously.…”

Section: Synthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This has led to a schizophrenic fission in commentators' responses, with some emphasising the new economies' potential heralding of a collaborative economic model (Aloni 2016;Botsman and Rogers 2011), and others claiming they are extensions of the 'worst excesses' of commercial exploitation (Kenney and Zysman 2016). Claims of exploitation are especially acute on the topic of labour (Ravenelle 2017;Morozov 2013), however, many of these arguments are specific to the relationship between providers and platforms in the gig economy (Bieber and Moggia 2020;Das Acevedo 2018), and neglect the peer-to-peer aspect of sharing. Huws (1998) and Terranova (2000) advance a different conception of labour as voluntary participation, however, they both adopt an immaterial approach which I argue cannot fully accommodate the sharing of material resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharing Property Sharing Labour: The Co-Production of Value in Platform Economies

Zhu

2020

Laws

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The recent meteoric rise of innovative companies in the sharing economy has divided commentators and regulators alike on the question of their socio-economic impact. Do these economic activities herald an equitable and sustainable alternative to existing practices, or are they simply expanding commercial exploitation into greater areas of life? This dichotomy overlooks how these economic activities constitute new assemblages of labour and property, and shape the flow of value amongst their participants. I propose a conceptual mechanism of ‘labour-service’, whereby labour and value flow through webs of material objects, as a way of examining how organic collaboration is first structured by the laws of property, and then by the dynamics of nascent platform economies. Tracing labour-service through the sharing economy renders a clearer view of the factors that drive collaboration and exploitation, and hopefully can contribute towards more efficacious regulatory measures and advance academic commentary on this emerging phenomenon.

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Risk Shifts in the Gig Economy: The Normative Case for an Insurance Scheme against the Effects of Precarious Work*

Cited by 32 publications

References 38 publications

Role of the Gig Economy in the Insurance Sector

Role of the Gig Economy in the Insurance Sector

On the (mis)classification of paid labor: When should gig workers have employee status?

Sharing Property Sharing Labour: The Co-Production of Value in Platform Economies

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