Stripping back the mask: Working conditions on digital labour platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic

Stripping back the mask: Working conditions on digital labour platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic

Digital labour platforms have been widely promoted as a solution to the unemployment crisis sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pandemic has also highlighted the harms to gig workers—who are exposed either to income loss, or to infection while carrying out essential work, but excluded fro...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Howson, K, Ustek-Spilda, F, Bertolini, A, Heeks, R, Ferrari, F, Katta, S, Cole, M, Aguera Reneses, P, Salem, N, Sutcliffe, D, Steward, S, Graham, M
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2022
Description
Summary:Digital labour platforms have been widely promoted as a solution to the unemployment crisis sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pandemic has also highlighted the harms to gig workers—who are exposed either to income loss, or to infection while carrying out essential work, but excluded from labour protections. We examine the COVID-19 policies of 191 platforms in 43 countries to understand how the crisis has shifted the conventions of the gig economy. Using a typology of “fair platform work” we report the introduction of some positive worker protections, but also significant shortfalls, including entrenchment of precarious work as platforms leverage the opportunities arising from the crisis.

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