The Unbearable Precarity of Pursuing Freedom: A Critical Overview of the Spanish sí soy autónomo Movement

Abstract

Throughout 2020, the Spanish Government initiated the process of regulating all activities related to platform work with the purpose of ‘chasing the fraud of bogus self-employment’ (PSOE and Unidas Podemos, 2020). Somewhat surprisingly, this initiative was met by a substantial wave of protest from the workers who the government proclaimed to be attempting to protect. In this light, the present research explores the arguments of the Spanish sí soy autónomo (yes I am self-employed) movement in its struggle against the Spanish Government. Drawing from a critical discourse analysis of semi-structured interviews to couriers of Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Glovo, as well as to a representative of an association in favour of the preservation of the self-employed status (N = 20), the main finding is that the pursuit of self-employment status is primarily informed by workers’ attempt to escape the precarious working conditions offered to wage-earners in the Spanish labour market as a whole, rather than by an empirically grounded claim. This suggests that new labour legislation addressing the challenges posed by platform work must not overlook the broader context in which it is intended to unfold – otherwise, it may not only fail to improve the workers’ situation, but also drive them to demand what are, actually, further deregulated legal arrangements. As such, this article’s main contribution to the sociological knowledge consists of pointing out that platform work, specificities notwithstanding, cannot be seen as detached from the broader Work landscape.

Platform capitalism and neo‐normative control: “Autonomy” as a digital platform control strategy in neoliberal Chile

“…This is coherent with the main workers' demand in these cases, which is to to restore the previous payment and incentive conditions, rather than modify the self-employed status (Stewart et al, 2020;Tassinari & Maccarone, 2019). Similarly, other international experiences, such as the 'si soy autónomo' movement in Spain (Vieira, 2021), show the persistence of adhering to the autonomy and freedom ideal over protecting the employment relationship. This highlights the relevance of neo-normative control's role in perpetuating the appeal to autonomy as key to the platform model control strategy.…”

Platform couriers' self‐exploitation: The case study of Glovo

“…Besides the COVID‐19 context, another important event occurred: in June 2020, the Spanish Minister of Labour announced a new legal framework for platform workers—having couriers as its target (Ginès i Fabrellas, 2021). Interestingly, the tensions around the new law (Vieira, 2021) incentivised interviewees to make themselves available to participate and provide in‐depth details on their situation. Be that as it may, throughout the entire research period, all Glovers operated under so‐called TRADE contracts, a hybrid status of economically dependent self‐employed worker that virtually equalised them to independent contractors (Jódar & Pericàs, 2017).…”

“…Such prima facie contradictory accounts beg explanation. After all, what could justify that workers exposed to extreme precarity not only consent to this degree of exploitation but commit to the success of their hiring platforms and, further surprisingly, even adhere to the narratives carved to make their exploitation socially acceptable (e.g., Barratt et al, 2020; Vieira, 2021)?…”

“…Not without irony, the triumph of this discourse simultaneously feeds on and obfuscates the precarious nature of workers bond to their hiring platforms, favouring the development of an entrepreneurial subjectivity (Barratt et al, 2020; Vieira, 2021). If anything, it can distract workers' attention from the fact that their de facto autonomy vis‐à‐vis platforms and bargaining power over working conditions are practically none (Franke & Pulignano 2021; Rosenblat, 2018; Van Doorn, 2020).…”

“…While the aspiration to see their situation improve has spurred the emergence of protest movements of couriers across virtually the entire globe (Trappmann et al, 2020), parcel delivery platforms continue to flourish, nonetheless—a tendency before the pandemic, but that COVID‐19 has greatly accelerated (Curry, 2022). If anything, platforms have proved able to acquire the consent of couriers regarding their modus operandi, mobilising workers' dedicated commitment around both pernicious labour process designs (Galière, 2020) and—further intriguing—even around their disputable classification as independent contractors (Barratt et al, 2020; Vieira, 2021).…”