What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

Although the working conditions of platform workers are often abysmal, there have been incremental improvements. Fairwork India sees positive changes on two fronts: (i) within the worker community and, (ii) from platforms. On the workers’ front, despite the alienation and isolation of platform work, there is increased collectivization and collective action as evidenced by localized strikes, formal strikes, and online activism. The recent announcement by food delivery workers in Bangalore, to log off for three days in mid-April, is a case in point. While such collectivization is a crucial step for workers to demand and negotiate desired changes, the fact that they are beginning to find their voice and are unafraid to use it when required, is a victory in itself. The platforms, too, are engaging with workers and researchers to make changes, even if reluctantly, in how they operate. For instance, since 2021, some platforms have begun to provide workers with contracts in local languages without legal jargon, and to remove the more egregious liability clauses. That the platforms are listening, and are willing to engage, is a victory too, especially since there are few, if any, regulations or laws which require them to do so.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

Arguably, the most prominent challenge is the lack of regulation. While initiatives like Fairwork can recommend that platforms implement the minimum standards for pay and working conditions, only regulation that enforces these standards will eventually make a difference on a larger scale. Another challenge is giving worker collectives, which are currently unacknowledged by platform managements, the necessary legal backing when negotiating their demands. For instance, of the 12 platforms studied by the Fairwork 2021 report, none demonstrated a willingness to either recognize or negotiate with worker collectives. The recent Uber announcement about creating its own Driver Advisory Council while ignoring the long-standing efforts of the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers to speak on behalf of workers, is illustrative. If platforms are to do better for their workers, they need to start engaging in a meaningful dialogue with them. And worker collectives are a powerful channel to that end.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

Platform companies possess vast amounts of data about their workforce which they use to control workers’ activities. Although data is collected from workers' phones, it is inaccessible to worker groups resulting in an information asymmetry. A possible step towards overcoming this asymmetry may exist in The Code on Social Security, which requires aggregators (platform companies) to periodically share information about their workforce. This, along with the launch of the e-Shram portal may provide an opportunity to understand the scale and scope of platform work. While the rules suggest that such data will become available to the National Social Security Board for Gig Workers and Platform Workers, it is also critical to make such data available to worker collectives so that it can be used to better understand the black-box like algorithmic management practices and functioning of platforms. Another strategic intervention lies in helping consumers make informed choices about how and where they procure services, by increasing their awareness of the conditions under which workers deliver.

There are at least two major struggles moving forward. First, in the absence of work sites, platform workers suffer isolation. On platforms providing food delivery services, for instance, there is also hyper-segmentation (by area, by shift, by year of joining, etc.) all of which make collectivization an uphill battle. While there has been a growth in digital collectivization through Facebook groups or WhatsApp, there is scope for further growth. Second, platform workers offer a variety of services; of these, ride-hailing workers are the most organized, with food delivery workers' collectives slowly growing. However, home service workers have made little progress towards collectivization. It is vital that workers show solidarity across service types to understand each other's struggles. Finally, integration with existing labor movements is vital. The lack of cohesion thus far, amongst existing platform worker unions and central trade unions, requires course correction.

Balaji Parthasarathy is a Professor at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-Bangalore), and a co-founder of the Institute's Center for Information Technology and Public Policy (CITAPP). He is also the Principal Investigator of the Fairwork project in India. His interests focus on the relationship between technological change, economic globalization, and social transformation. Within this broad focus, his work follows two threads. One thread examines the impacts of public policy and firm strategies on the organization of production in the ICT (information and communications technology) industry. The second thread deals with ICTs for Development, or ICTD. Here, his interests lie in understanding how the deployment of ICTs in various domains of activity transform social relationships, especially in underprivileged contexts.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

Since 2017, workers in the platform economy have increasingly organized and mobilized to defend their interests. This isn’t just an anecdotal observation –  data collected by colleagues at the University of Leeds bears it out. But despite this rising tide of action, conditions in the UK platform economy remain extremely poor. This rapidly expanding sector now engages 15% of the workforce, and many of those workers face poverty wages, poor conditions, and chronic precarity. The harsh reality is that the gains of the movement have only partly stemmed this tide.

Delivery workers and taxi drivers, the two workforces who have mobilized most ardently in the last five years, have won the biggest gains. Even if we can’t point to the precise links between action and result, the overall trend seems obvious. New market entrants in rapidly expanding segments such as grocery delivery, have tended to use an employment model that offers workers more stable wages and stronger rights. Here, the relentless mobilization of delivery riders seems to have changed the shape of the labor market in lasting ways, even if specific strikes have rarely won more than temporary wage increases and hiring freezes. Uber has also been pushed to adopt a worker model and jettison the strategy of bogus self-employment through a combined strategy that has mobilized both legal action and more classical industrial tactics.

But there are other groups, such as care and cleaning workers, where such victories are yet to be won. As far as we know, these workers have less of a history of collective action. If there have been strikes or forms of coordinated protest on these platforms, they have generally not reached the public consciousness. These majority-female workforces face a variety of  problems, with low wages and lack of essential security measures standing out as particular concerns. The expanding platformization of this kind of work is leading to a race to the bottom, which can only be halted through worker mobilization.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

In the UK, the ongoing strike by Stuart food delivery couriers is developing into a vital set piece confrontation. Following the introduction of a new pay model, which riders argued would amount to a 24% pay cut, a strike was launched by the Independent Workers’ union of Great Britain (IWGB), which specifically targets McDonald’s deliveries during peak times. This new tactic has proved successful, with the strike spreading from its initial location in Sheffield to city after city across the UK. Sporadic hit-and-run strike action, the classic hallmark of courier self-organization, has now racked the platform for over 90 days. By the time this is published, the strike might be resolved one way or the other, but it increasingly feels like a major set piece confrontation which will have implications for platform workers across the UK.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

Uber’s ride-hailing business in the UK has just agreed to a collective bargaining agreement with a large union. It's far from a perfect agreement, which appears to be more reliant on a partnership between platform and union, rather than worker power. Across other sectors, we’ve seen how this kind of arrangement can weaken workers’ bargaining power and lead to suboptimal outcomes in the long run. The agreement is exclusive, which also acts to lout other significant unions which organize thousands of Uber drivers and have led the way with strikes and legal action in the past.  Nonetheless, this is a very interesting precedent. Finally, collective bargaining has reached the platform economy. The point-blank refusal to negotiate collectively that has characterized platform strategies when confronted with collective worker organization, now appears less tenable. The real question now is, how this success in forcing a platform to bargain can be spread, and if other agreements can be made which are based less on partnerships and more on worker power.

Callum Cant is a postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute. His research focuses on AI in the workplace and the questions of power and control which result from it. He’s currently working on a project with the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, titled ‘AI for Fair Work’.  His first book, Riding for Deliveroo, is an investigation of class struggle in platform capitalism from the workers’ point of view. Alongside his academic work, he edits the workers’ inquiry platform Notes from Below and goes on long runs.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

The pandemic has starkly highlighted the fragility and the precarious nature of work for people in the gig economy. In Africa, we have limited or little legislation for benefits and social protection for these workers. This has made them one of the hardest hit (economically) groups in the ongoing pandemic.

Large sections of the unemployed on the continent rely on digital marketplaces to find some form of work, gigs or employment in order to get by. The pandemic - almost in a positive way - laid bare the volatility of this state of affairs. Many people who work through such platforms had no savings to fall back on as well as no social protection - most dangerously, no medical insurance to access treatment. Those who accessed platform work and were location-based workers like cleaners and drivers, struggled to get any job at all due to the lockdowns and social distance enforcement.

It is important to note that some companies in the gig economies were offering some kind of education to their workers on staying safe. Some even created basic regulations to protect their delivery staff, such as “no contact delivery” policies that customers had to agree and adhere to in order to avail services. However, these efforts fell short of providing the full protection that was needed.

On the whole, while it was a truly devastating event, the pandemic did create the conditions for some of these structural issues with gig work to become central topics of public discussion, and these may provide the momentum for genuine reform in the future.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

With the precariousness of work in the gig economy highlighted by the pandemic, a few developed countries were able to provide some form of protection such as sick leave and unemployment benefits to their workers after pressure from lawmakers and trade unions. However, such initiatives were hardly available in Africa, particularly by African founded platforms, a majority of which had been in operation  for less than five years before the pandemic. These platforms already faced low cash reserves to support workers, and while trade unions put them under pressure, they did not have the financial capacity to offer these services offered by companies like Uber.

The issue of limited or lack of financial relief for workers using African-founded platforms is one of the major challenges that was brought to light during the pandemic.

The other issue is the absence of a proper regulatory framework that will address decent work deficits for gig workers. This is vitally important to ensure the wellbeing of gig-workers, and should be done through social dialogue to ensure all the key stakeholders are part and parcel in the formulation of  such a regulatory framework.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

In  a continent where over 70% of the workforce is engaged in the informal economy, the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the unemployment challenges in Africa.  During the pandemic we witnessed a shift toward the digital economy in ensuring the continuity of activities across governments, businesses, and society in the region during times of social distancing and containment measures.

For trade unions, the past two years have shown that the future of work in Africa is linked to the huge potential of new technologies that are likely to create new jobs and boost the productivity of existing ones. Therefore, the role of trade unions in shaping the policies and legislation that will protect workers is going to be paramount not only for the future of work but also for the future of trade unions themselves.

Today, there’s definitely an opportunity for African trade unions to be a key voice in  discussions and policy work around digitalization in Africa. Of course, the odds are currently stacked against them. The major challenge, so far, with trade union participation in forums held by the African Union and the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on “Digitalization, E-Commerce and Data”, is who is driving the agenda. So far, big data companies sit at the table and are given a priority hearing. The issue of limited infrastructure - both hard and soft - is a significant challenge for trade unions in their fight for gig workers’ rights. However, it is one they need to surmount if they want to capitalize on the nascent state of the digital economy, and the potential that still exists for shaping its evolution.

Caroline Khamati Mugalla is the first ever female appointed to head a sub-regional trade union in Africa, the East Africa Trade Union Confederation with a membership of over 3.5 Million. She has a wide experience spearheading vision, strategy, and execution of trade unions and labor organizations advocacy  work representing the voice of workers at high level forums nationally and internationally. She is a former member of the Commonwealth Civil Society Advisory Committee representing Eastern Africa and a board member of the African Labour Research and Education Institute. Currently she is serving as a member at of the Trade Union Development Cooperation Network and the African Trade Union Development Network.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

As the Covid-19 crisis grew the ranks of the reserve army of platform labor, platforms demonstrated their ability to appropriate the advantages of sustained market activity without assuming the responsibilities borne by traditional employers. Though this dynamic was not exclusively a product of the pandemic, Covid-19 has highlighted how the oversupply of online labor power, particularly in lower-income countries, undermines workers’ power position, and therefore their capacity to negotiate for better conditions. The ample availability of new workers allows platforms to keep prices low and meet sudden peaks of demand, rendering adequate protection and treatment of workers a “charitable” choice for platforms, rather than a necessity if they want to retain sufficient labor power to remain operational. For platform workers seeking to organize collectively, this disadvantageous labor market reality further compounds structural impediments like status misclassification, as well as the radically fragmented nature of both spatially-specific and online-based platform labor processes. This minimizes the kind of worker-to-worker interactions where labor mobilization typically finds its inception. Platform workers hoping to improve their working conditions, thus have to navigate a particularly unfavorable terrain, marked by the absence of institutionalized mechanisms for collective bargaining. As food delivery workers’ Covid-era strikes over basic matters such as the provision of Personal Protective Equipment illustrate, platform workers face an uphill battle to force even the most basic concessions.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

Long-standing labor movement lobbying has started to pay off in some quarters as lawmakers begin to overcome corporate resistance to catch up with the rapid growth of platform-based employment, which in the past five years doubled in the UK and already constitutes the main source of income for over 10% of U.S. workers. Often coming on the back of landmark rulings in court cases brought or supported by trade unions, important legislative initiatives to codify platform workers’ rights are underway in a range of jurisdictions. Two main dimensions covered by these initiatives concern misclassification and algorithmic management. Following a Spanish effort to recategorize platform workers as employees entitled to protections, the European Commission proposed a new directive in December 2021 to guarantee labor rights in the digital economy. Presently under review, the directive’s chief goal is to establish a presumption of an employment relationship between workers and platforms, meaning that platforms are considered employers unless platforms prove otherwise. In the US, in California, the ground-breaking California Assembly Bill 5 was passed in 2019 to a broadly similar effect. Though platforms have successfully campaigned to overturn it in court, an appeal by the Bill’s backers is currently pending. Canada and Chile, meanwhile, are on the verge of implementing legislation that, much like the proposed EU directive, will shift the burden of proof regarding platform workers’ employment status to platforms, breaking open their algorithmic monitoring and management practices in the process. Finally, in India,  the 2020 Code on Social Protection extended standard employment protections to all workers – including the country’s 15 million platform workers. While the implementation process leaves much to be desired, this overhaul remains a milestone development for the country’s increasingly powerful gig worker movement.

The significance of these legislative developments notwithstanding true workplace change, can ultimately only be affected through worker power. Despite the structural obstacles to platform labor organizing, workers and their organizations across the globe have successfully developed an innovative strategic arsenal to collectively challenge the exploitative practices that permeate the platform economy. These typically decentralized strategies comprise the following three varieties.

First, we have worker-to-worker approaches, including a large number of informal courier collectives and unions federated in a transnational alliance, as well as mutual aid initiatives like Poolbbang, a Korean association dedicated to building supportive ties between platform and freelance workers, and information exchange platforms like Turkopticon run by and for Amazon Mechanical Turk workers.

Second, there are worker-to-algorithm approaches, in which workers game platforms’ profit-making workplace algorithms to resist or mitigate the impact of algorithmic control over their working lives, for example by, respectively, calling on fellow drivers to log off from the Uber app to trigger surge prices and evading algorithmic scrutiny by avoiding vocabulary that may alert platform to potential rule violations.

Lastly, we have worker-to-public approaches, in which consumer outreach triggered by platform workers’ sharing of bad experiences with social media audiences, pushes platforms to change their policies – an organic strategy that has proven instrumental in China, where viral communication of platform-related incidents has played a major role in challenging unfair conditions.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

We can identify two areas where legislative support can empower workers in their struggle to transform the platform economy towards social justice. Firstly, legislative initiatives fall short in improving the collective voice and representation of platform workers. Though Chile’s law, for instance, will grant all platform workers the right to unionize, it stipulates that any collective bargaining will take place without the usual labor law protections, including the right to strike free from reprisals by employers. The proposed EU directive, similarly, fails to oblige platforms to introduce collective representation mechanisms which would enable workers to immediately address workplace issues. Addressing these lacunae will significantly enhance the positive and empowering impact of the legislative initiatives under development. 

Secondly, lawmakers can play an important role in helping workers develop alternatives to increasingly monopsonic platforms. Much has been written about platform cooperativism as the model for such alternatives, and there are indeed many reasons to be enthusiastic about worker-governed platforms such as TaxiApp and streaming app Resonate, which are based on democratic decision-making and cooperative worker and user-ownership. Yet, platform cooperatives face major viability issues, having to compete with global tech corporations that have the backing of venture capitalists with extraordinarily deep pockets. To overcome such hurdles, public policies are needed to create an institutional environment that actively stimulates the establishment and growth of platform co-ops. Empirical research on offline cooperatives suggests that co-ops are more likely to grow in number and size when at least two conditions are met: high contestation of capital-managed firms, a condition already met across jurisdictions, and policies that reduce or cover the costs of establishing platform cooperatives while boosting its benefits. Already existing cooperative economies like that of Emilia Romagna in Italy, where co-ops produce 30% of GDP, can serve as inspiration towards realizing the latter condition. The success of cooperatives in Emilia Romagna derives from coop-friendly laws and regulations, including cooperatives’ exemption from corporate taxation, the obligation to shift 3% of profits to cooperative development funds, and a law granting laid-off workers a budget to start a cooperative workplace. By promoting the transposition of these laws to the platform economy, workers and their allies in policy-making circles could re-energize a promising alternative trajectory of platformization.

Beyond legislation, one promising and so far under-utilized power resource for platform workers is the cultivation and enactment of cross-platform worker solidarity. Many platforms depend not just on large numbers of workers they can quite easily replace, but also on a small pool of workers with a comparatively scarce skill set: most notably software engineers and data scientists who create, maintain, and update the digital infrastructure that more precarious workers like drivers and freelancers populate. As illustrated by the successful establishment of the Alphabet Workers Union and the confident self-assertion of groups like the Tech Workers Coalition and Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ), labor activism is growing in this section of high-skilled workers. Both through walk-outs and sick-outs, and public-facing interventions, AECJ has already demanded Amazon change its policies not just with respect to its environmental impact, but also regarding its treatment of warehouse workers – to considerable effect both inside and outside the corporation. If consolidated and expanded to include Mechanical Turkers and Amazon Flex couriers, AECJ’s cross-sectoral, yet intra-corporate solidarity can become a huge power resource for the tens of thousands of platform workers inside Amazon’s tech-conglomerate across the globe – and the same logic applies to many other platforms. Indeed, a key factor in winning the many battles ahead in platform workers’ ongoing global struggle will be the time-tested strategy of building solidarity across space and trade.

Casper Gelderblom is a PhD researcher at the European University Institute, where he works on the theory and practice of transnational labor solidarity. He holds degrees in Governance, Economics, and Development (LUC The Hague), History (Leiden, Panthéon-Sorbonne, and Oxford) and Political Thought (Cambridge). Casper previously worked as a policy trainee in the Dutch and European Parliaments, and as a researcher at the labor rights NGO Kav LaOved in Tel Aviv, Cornell University’s Worker Institute in New York and the Labor & Worklife Program at Harvard Law School. As a trade unionist, he has served in various positions in the Netherlands (FNV) and at the EU-level (ETUC). Alongside his studies, Casper coordinates the global Make Amazon Pay campaign on behalf of Progressive International.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

The gig economy has been a driving force in shaping the future of work. For instance, businesses in this sector are marketing greater flexibility in the workplace and more choice in one’s timings, and through this they are able to enjoy avoiding the cost of providing social security and fixed remuneration. The results of these trends became clearly visible during the pandemic: the so-called “partners” (gig workers) were left without regular wage or guaranteed income and due to nationwide lockdowns, they couldn’t venture out for work. Some of the workers dipped into whatever meager savings they had, some moved back home. They did not recieve any relief - material or financial - from the platforms they had been working for.

In such a time, one of the landmark victories at the international level was the decision of the U.K Supreme Court in Uber BV vs. Aslam on 19 February, 2021. Two drivers working with Uber, James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam, sued Uber on the grounds that they were “workers” under the law and the company had denied them their rights and wages. Uber contended that drivers work as independent contractors under contracts made directly with the passenger and that Uber is simply the drivers’ booking agent.

If drivers work under workers’ contractors, a secondary question was raised about the extent of power Uber exercises over the drivers in terms of rates charged, terms of the contract between Uber and the drivers, monitoring the drivers’ performance, mandating routes which drivers need to follow, and restricting personal communication between the drivers and the passengers. Therefore, the Supreme Court concluded that Uber maintained strict control over its drivers, so much so that to improve their economic conditions, drivers must work long hours on Uber’s terms. The Supreme Court upheld the decision of the tribunal that Uber drivers are “workers” as per law and are entitled to rights such as minimum wage, paid annual leaves, etc.

The successful precedent set by the UK case has provided impetus for workers unionizing and attempting similar challenges elsewhere.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

According to a 2021 World Bank study, “The Long Shadow of Informality, Challenges and Policies”, the informal economy accounts for 1/3rd of the GDP and 70% of employment in an average developing country. Unfortunately, till date, gig and platform workers have not been given the benefit of any social security laws in India. While a plethora of laws exist in India that seek to give social security to every person, gig and platform workers remain excluded till date.

Even though Chapter IX of the Social Security Code 2020 provides social security for unorganized workers, gig workers, and platform workers, it is inadequate. To avail benefits under the Code, it is mandatory for gig workers, unorganized workers, and platform workers to be registered under section 113 (i.e. through e-Shram portal). But, if we see the welfare schemes that have been brought under the umbrella of e-Shram, they are targeted, old, fragmented, miniscule and voluntary, that have not been effective to cover the traditional unorganized economy. It is impossible for such schemes to even broach the dynamics of the new economy.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

In the Indian context, I think the biggest opportunity for strategic intervention is to critically engage with the government at the state and national levels to push them to revisit the four Labor Codes and make sure the demands and the voices of the unorganized sector have been heard, and to remove all anti-worker provisions from these legislations.

This itself is the major challenge and struggle for the labor movement moving forward. Our strategic interventions with the government will create a ripple effect on the future of work for unorganized workers. Apart from this, the mapping of skills, skill developments, and gender parity are crucial points of concern that any labor movement should be well aware of.

Chinmayi is a member of National Secretariat at Working Peoples  Coalition (WPC) and in the Legal Aid center (India Labourline) as a  Research and Documentation Officer. Previously held three years of  experience as an architect, planner, and researcher with the  collaboration of policy advisors and planners to identify community  needs and develop short and long-term plans to mobilize, grow, and  revitalize urban poor. She completed her master’s in urban policy  planning from Oxford Brookes University in 2019. Her area of interest  lies in the field of decent work, poverty reduction, social security,  employment guarantee, future of work and sustainable growth.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

The continued effort from old and new trade unions is testified to by the number of cases raised in courts across the world questioning the classification of workers as independent contractors. As a result, more and more courts are ruling that workers on digital labor platforms are indeed employees. This is very important. Work is work, and all workers should enjoy the same benefits and rights. Another interesting recent development is how some unions are using data protection regulations to submit data subject access requests and to challenge algorithmic management. Here, the work of the App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) in the UK is pioneering, and the wins they have obtained in their cases against Uber deserve celebration. A third positive development is the increase in the number of unions which are signing collective agreements with digital labor platforms.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

Across the world, precarious forms of work are on the rise, stripping workers of their rights and leaving them to bear the risk of the market on their own shoulders. This is not least driven by digital labor platforms that utilize regulatory gaps and regulatory insufficiencies to outcompete brick-and-mortar companies as well as to exploit labor. In connection with this, the digitalization of work and workers is increasingly threatening workers’ fundamental rights, freedoms, and autonomy. Algorithmic management, obscure or blackbox algorithms and automated decisions coupled with, or even facilitated by, regulatory slugginess is leading to the commodification of workers. At the same time, digital technologies are increasingly being used by platforms to identify and destroy organizing efforts by workers. These organizing efforts are further hampered by market regulations that are aimed at preventing cartels. Given that workers on digital labor platforms are still mainly regarded as independent contractors and therefore sole proprietors, market rules prevent them from organizing. All of this combined, is leading to an exploitation of labor ánd a downward pressure on working conditions and rights. Acknowledging that digital labor platforms do offer workers in many parts of the world a means to earn an income, the flexibility offered to the workers should not come at the expense of their rights. Here, governments need to take responsibility and regulate digital labor platforms in order to protect workers’ fundamental rights, freedoms, and autonomy.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

First of all, unions must lead the way and demand that governments close regulatory gaps so that all workers, in all forms of work, have the same strong social and fundamental rights. These rights must be enforceable. Secondly, algorithmic management systems and practices must be regulated. This regulation must include stringent demands to transparency, accountability, and fairness, as well as to the necessary ongoing governance of said systems and practices by workers and platforms in co-operation.

Thirdly, while the data-driven commodification of workers must ultimately be refuted, digital labor platform workers and their unions can tap into the potential of digital technologies by collecting and analyzing their own data. Here, several good examples exist from Driver’s Seat, to GigBox and the app WeClock to name a few. In these cases, the power imbalances between workers and platforms that arise through the unequal access to information have been successfully addressed. Fourthly, unions must spearhead a human rights-centered campaign aimed at highlighting the violations of said rights through the unfettered digitalization of work and workers.  

Importantly, the four issues raised here demand governmental cooperation, action, and responsibility. Discussions held in intergovernmental fora such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Labor Organization (ILO), Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), and G7 unfortunately provide little indication that governments are prepared to regulate from a rights perspective. Changing this will be one of the most crucial battles for unions going forward.

Dr. Christina Colclough is founder of the Why Not Lab - a boutique value-driven consultancy that puts workers at the centre of digital change. She is regarded as a thought leader on the futures of work(ers) and the politics of digital technology and works with unions, interest organisations and governments across the world on issues such as AI governance, workers' data rights and human rights, and the development of responsible digital technology. Christina is a Board and Committee member in several international bodies focussed on the Ethics of AI. See Christina's wikipedia page here.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

In Argentina, the main achievements of the labor movement in the context of platformization of work are linked to the collective organization and the raising of demands in the public space. As a result of a process that began with the deployment of strikes and other collective actions led by apps’ delivery workers, the Platform Personnel Association (APP, its acronym in Spanish) was created at the end of 2018. This organization aims to represent workers of food delivery and ride-hailing platforms. During the pandemic, food delivery and courier work became essential activities. The imbalance between the essential nature of the activity and the rights associated with it was one of the reasons for the formation of another union, exclusively for platform couriers: the Base Union of Platform’s Courier Workers (Sitrarepa, its acronym in Spanish), which has 1,500 members. These organizations have been very important to visibilize and socially recognize the unfair and precarious conditions of platform labor. This process has contributed to a central victory for the labor movement in Argentina today. The pandemic and the platformization of work and life triggered the sanctioning of the Legal Regime of the Teleworking Contract which, among other issues, guarantees the right to disconnect. However, this legislation only regulates labor relations legally recognized as such.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

The persistence of a core of informality in the labor market, the increasing inflation, and the difficulties in maintaining purchasing power and living conditions, along with the consequences of the pandemic on employment and economic activity, are outstanding features of Argentina in recent years. In this general framework, a central challenge in the field of platforms is linked to the lack of labor regulations that address the peculiarities of work in the sector and protect its workers. Although progress was allegedly made through different governmental initiatives and legislative projects, these have been questioned by workers and their allies. For instance, in Buenos Aires, a law to regulate platforms of goods and food delivery was approved. However, workers pointed out it lacks recognition of the labor link between them and the platforms. This aspect ignores the figure of the company as an employer and places workers as independent contractors, which places them in a situation of precariousness and insecurity. In addition, this law is also identified as an obstacle to the fulfillment of trade union rights, one of the main challenges faced by the collective organization of platform workers. Despite the progress made in this last aspect, the two trade union organizations created have not yet obtained legal recognition as such, which prevents them from exercising formal representation and hinders their struggle for better working conditions, while enabling the persistence of anti-union practices in the companies.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

When it comes to platform labor, crucial struggles include labor rights and decent working conditions. While platforms pose diverse challenges, such as data management and privacy, and negative effects on communities and cities, labor is the great unifier of the struggles to defend and improve our living conditions facing the overwhelming advance of digital platforms. The strategy of activism must focus on bringing together not only platform workers, but also informal and precarious workers outside platforms; and on strengthening the international links of this global movement. A third element of the strategy lies in nurturing an increasingly powerful movement: platform cooperativism. This proposes to develop digital platforms that are organized based on democratic, collective, and diverse ownership and governance models, serving communities, workers, users, and other stakeholders. In Argentina and different parts of Latin America, there are embryonic experiences of platform cooperativism that are strengthened by a productive exchange with experiences in other parts of the world.

Denise Kasparian is a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council and an assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. She is also a research fellow at the Institute for the Cooperative Digital Economy at the New School (New York, United States), where she analyses platform cooperativism in Argentina. She is a sociologist and holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. Her latest book Co-operative Struggles (Brill, 2022) expands the theoretical horizons regarding labor unrest by proposing new categories to make visible and conceptualize conflicts in the new worker cooperativism of the 21st century.

Agustina Súnico is a research fellow at the Gino Germani Research Institute in Argentina. She is a sociologist, with a Master's degree in research in social sciences from the University of Buenos Aires. She is a Ph.D. candidate in social sciences at the same university. She is also a researcher at the Cultural Cooperation Center, where she is part of a research group studying platform capitalism and the experiences of platform cooperatives in Argentina. Her research topics are framed in labor studies, particularly with respect to labor conflicts and the trade union organization of workers in Argentina.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

I would say that awareness itself is a critical milestone directly attributed to groups of organized workers who warned about the abuse in gig economy platforms long before the onset of the pandemic.

I  also think that the articulated work of organized workers at a global scale is a significant achievement. This collective understanding of the importance of joint collaboration, due to the global scale on which platforms operate, should be celebrated and is proof of the movement's evolution. Moreover, aiming at global collaboration is the only way to counterbalance these groups' enormous economic power.

Additionally, the attempt of regulators such as those of the UK, Spain, and Latin American countries to regulate the gig economy is also important. We need more policies and lawmakers who truly understand the demands of labor movements to codify them into law. This of course is a difficult task, but the very existence of these initiatives is a demonstration that collective organization to demand change is working at different levels and must continue.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

I think that some of the challenges workers face in the gig economy are structural, and thus, very difficult to tackle. For instance, Paraguay has one of the lowest unionization percentages in Latin America, of around 5%. This directly affects society in general, and how workers in particular, perceive unionization. Moreover, it leaves workers in a disadvantaged position when negotiating with big companies, if that negotiation even occurs.

On the other hand, the complexities posed at the intersection of labor, technology, and rights have not been accompanied by an evolution of how workers, unions, and policymakers perceive an effective enjoyment of rights in the digital realm. In the case of Latin America, the low levels of digital and rights literacy are a big challenge. Such low levels are coupled with an unstable work environment that incentivizes workers to accept any given job to avail a monthly income.

Moreover, there is lack of support from governments for local initiatives such as platform cooperatives, that could develop and are a valid alternative to the current capitalist gig economy model. We need to explore other avenues to develop technological and labor infrastructure, so there is an important role that the state should adopt in this matter.

Lastly, the issue of inclusion is a huge challenge. For example, much of the debate has revolved around the importance of changing workers' status from freelancers to employees. But there are still structural factors that could make this change insufficient and give a false sense of victory to certain economic and political groups. For instance, migrants in different countries work in the shadows due to bureaucratic issues or lack of papers to avail work upfront. However, the livelihoods of these groups could be jeopardized if lawmakers decide that all workers should work under one status without considering structural challenges.

Additionally, the inclusion of vulnerable groups such as trans people who live in countries that don't legally allow gender-aligned name changes, are still topics to discuss to create a more fair and inclusive gig economy.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

The issue of classification is still a huge debate. There’s no clear roadmap towards an ideal job classification that can be as inclusive as possible and this is something that will need collective discussion rather than a top-down approach from the government or the private sector.

Additionally, the issue of countries’ and workers’ data sovereignty in the gig economy context is a topic that is starting to take off, but is still in its early stages. In contexts like the Latin-American one, where unemployment is still unresolved, other issues tend to be deprioritized regardless of whether they are essential issues when thinking about the big picture.

This is significantly linked to algorithmic transparency in the decision-making process of big corporations and is a strategic point of intervention for a more sustainable gig economy. However, it needs to be coupled with digital literacy from workers and society to have the tools to audit these systems more independently.

Lastly, labor movements and competition authorities should talk more and connect. The scale on which big gig economy corporations operate – where as they enter any given market they kill local competition and then establish the ‘labor baseline’ without resistance – is problematic and harms workers and local entrepreneurship.

Eduardo is Co- Director of Tedic.  He has a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations. MPA in Digital Technologies and Policy from University College London. More than seven years of work in civil society and international  organizations. Researcher in science, technology, innovation and  digitization public policies. Interested in the social and  economical development of Paraguay.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

As a recent and still evolving phenomenon, there are not many examples of big victories for the labor movement in the digital context. That said, the awareness and public debate on platformization increased considerably during the pandemic in Latin America. Moreover, major national trade unions started prioritizing platform workers in the pursuit of a decent work agenda, thereby beginning to formally support actions from these non-unionized workers and taking up research and data generation initiatives, alongside international labor organizations and NGOs. Unfortunately, these examples are not the norm, and for the most part, traditional national trade union centers generally don’t directly organize mobilizations alongside platform workers or enroll them in traditional unions.

The biggest protests of platform workers took place during the pandemic in Latin America, organized by workers entirely on their own with no direct articulation with traditional trade unions. These mobilizations focused on exposing bad practices occurring on dominant platforms and demanding new app rules on tariffs and internal workers’ policies. These protests were a key development in bringing platform workers’ rights into the public debate, and consequently pressing some apps to reform, even if it meant only slightly upgrading their tariffs and policies. This even resulted in a few national legislations across Latin America to ensure platform workers get a financial compensation for injuries or contracting Covid-19 while working for the app. The protests also led to demands for apps to recognize  the "providers" as workers, with proposals for different kinds of legislation in different countries. 

Also, there have been some initiatives to levy local tax on apps as a consequence of pressure on big tech, but this was less directly impacted by social movement pressure. Lastly, recent regulations approved in Spain are now commonly used by trade unions and decent work advocates as an example to be followed by Latin American countries.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

There are many challenges in Latin America at this moment. The first is the structural unemployment scenario in many countries, impacting especially the poor and the youth, creating a contingent of workers that depend on these platforms for their livelihoods. Moreover, decent, formal work is increasingly becoming the privilege of an elite few in this part of the world. As a result, the poorer sections of the working class no longer demand to be included in the formal sector – such a scenario is so far removed from their reality.

This situation has narrowed the political horizons of resistance. Platform workers in their mass mobilizations don't even demand for social security benefits, or ask for government intervention to formalize their labor and expand their rights. In fact, once informality is the rule, workers don’t have any direct relation with trade unions. Their demands, then, are mostly minimal and economic –  reductions in  app tariffs and claiming better working conditions under the platform. Even these demands are seldom met. However, it is worth mentioning that a recent investigation by Fairwork concludes that apps in Latin America are poorly rated for their work policies.

The weak state of the workers’ movement makes it especially vulnerable to the dirty tactics of platform companies. As an example of this, The Intercept and A Publica recently published two investigative articles on how, Ifood (biggest food app in Brazil) hired ad agencies to create a fake workers' movement to oppose workers' movement for better tariffs and rights in the app. They also infiltrated people in workers' protests and created a complex ad structure to oppose workers' movement in the shadows using fake workers' statements and pictures.

Another significant issue pertains to ideology. Many of these workers (it needs to be highlighted that the profile of platform workers varies between car drivers, food delivery by motorcycles and by bicycles) don’t identify themselves as working class. Rather, there is a strong ideology of entrepreneurship and aspirations of becoming “self-made men” who are part of “small businesses”. The profile of these workers is mainly masculine and conservative, characterized by the rejection of the so-called “traditional politics’’, which wrongly links trade unions to the political establishment. As a result, they are also difficult to mobilize and accommodate into more traditional channels of worker protest and resistance.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

Platform workers are the biggest labor-force sector in many countries in Latin America, so, the future of labor rights, trade unions, and workers’ organization will be defined by what happens at this juncture. At the same time, how trade unions will deal with digitalization (including apps and platform workers) will be decisive for the survival of trade unions as relevant political actors. From the perspective of Public Services International (PSI), we are mostly focused on how digitalization impacts quality public services (QPS) and public workers, and how workers can shape digitalization. Nowadays, digitalization is the area which has most training in PSI, as a cross-cutting area, linked with QPS, workers’ rights, and trade union agendas.

There are some strategic interventions for trade unions in the region – especially trade union centers – regarding platformization. The first is to invest and structurally improve unions’ policies in communication, apps, and social media, a topic usually neglected in the region. That’s an imperative to connect with the younger generation and adapt to the highly digitalized world. At the same time, trade unions must pressure governments they support, to draw up national policies to combat informal work. This not only means creating decent jobs – which is obvious – but also addressing obstacles to formal jobs such as tax injustice. Additionally, in a region with structural informality, it's imperative that national trade unions create policies to enroll and formally represent these workers (including new workers sectors rather than the traditional ones), and at the same time offer trade union facilities, know-how, and staff to informal workers to aid them in their own mobilizations.

Gabriel is the Digital, Tax and Trade Organizer for Public Services International in Latin America. He coordinates a regional project between PSI and FES on Digitalization, Tax and Trade in Latin America.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

In Germany, a number of measures are currently being introduced to improve the social security conditions for gig economy workers and  simplify the status recognition process used to clarify whether workers should be legally treated as employees under German law. Further, several court rulings across Europe show the growing recognition of platform workers’ digital rights, including rulings in the UK against Ola Cabs, making them agree to workers being represented by their trade unions and that personal data at work could be accessed for the purpose of establishing a data trust. Further, a Supreme Court decision in Spain declared that a labor relationship exists between the Glovo company and its delivery workers. Overall, the growth in awareness and discussion of alternative models is strengthening the labor movement and the gig economy. Concepts around platform cooperatives as popularized by Trebor Scholz or models around data collectives for platform workers that Christina Colclough is trying to raise recognition for, can be effective alternatives and they are gaining traction.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

The stark power asymmetries that define most forms of current platform labor create technical and organizational barriers that hinder workers to exercise their labor rights. Lock-in effects caused by business models and platform-centric data management remain a key challenge, hindering workers from exercising their right to access personal data held by the platform, the right to have an explanation of how such data is processed including automated decision-making processes, as well as the right to challenge automated decision-making. The lack of access to data is one of many factors hindering efforts to exercise different forms of co-determination and an information base for informed collective action.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

A crucial factor for the empowerment of platform workers and their unions is a responsible, rights-based collectivization of worker data. The collectivization of data is the first step toward the creation of worker data collectives or data trusts. Traditional organizations like trade unions may have to play a different role in future if they manage to build capacities and transform into digital rights organizations that can act as data trusts or intermediaries. Several ideas and tools are currently being developed to support workers in their daily data-driven work contexts, including apps such as WeClock. The app’s working prototype was launched in 2020. It taps into 14 phone sensors to enable self-tracking. Data is stored on the worker’s device exclusively. These applications can be stepping stones for an alternative future of human rights-based, responsible data management. The current movement toward strong regulatory frameworks in the EU, aimed to protect digital consumers and limit platform powers, creates many opportunities to connect to and highlight related labor issues. From an advocacy perspective, strategic alliances with the climate movement can amplify the fight for social and ecologically just working conditions.

Geraldine de Bastion is an expert on digital transformation and international cooperation, innovation, and human rights and works with digital rights defenders and digital initiatives across the world. In 2013, she co-founded the open source consutlancy Konnektiv and the Global Innovation Gathering (GIG), a global network of grassroots innovators, makerspaces, hackerspaces, and innovation hubs. In 2018, she authored and moderated the ARTE documentary “Digital Africa”, which captures many of the innovator’s activities in the GIG network. Geraldine is part of the Smart City Advisory Board for her hometown Berlin, Germany and the CityLab Advisory board, Berlin's innovation space where city administration and the digital community meet.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

In recent years, we have seen courts in a growing number of jurisdictions rule in favor of some form of employment rights for platform workers. It is the natural endgame of a 10-year challenge against misclassification and misinformation where platforms tried to insist platform workers were truly independent contractors and built their business models around this core deceit. The wheels of justice run slowly but surely, and it has been striking that the courts have generally had a clear-eyed view of the reality of platform work and were not bamboozled for long about the new tech business models of the gig economy. It was really just old wine in new bottles.

As this new reality sets in, Uber has been the first gig economy player to break ranks and cynically try to fashion a third, lesser category of employment in California. The UK already has a third category, and platform companies are lobbying for the same in Europe as the EU considers future platform economy employment regulations.

It is true that the pandemic has radically altered the landscape and did much to bust the myth of the gig economy. As work rates fell by as much as 80% for Uber drivers, it was a harsh wake up call for many as to just how vulnerable and precarious their employment has been. In the UK, drivers suffered one of the highest Covid-19 mortality rates when compared to other occupations. But, out of this tragedy, we see growing numbers of union membership in the gig economy as workers scramble to organize to better protect their interests for the future.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

As gig economy companies try to create a common regulatory framework enshrining a third category of employment, the issue of working time becomes crucial. In the UK and in California, Uber and others have advocated for protected working time to be limited to what they call engagement time, which is the period of time from when a dispatch has been sent until the driver or courier reaches their destination.

But this approach would continue to see workers locked in a piece work arrangement and waiting time remaining unpaid as working time. The worst abuses of low pay and poor productivity in the gig economy cannot be tackled until all working time, including waiting time, is paid. It is ironic indeed, that the tech companies that promise real-time market optimization are so determined to be so wasteful in their use of human capital.

For now, while some rights have been secured, the sector remains dogged by low pay and poor conditions. We have seen some union recognition deals in the sector such as with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union in Canada and the GMB in the UK. Such deals remain controversial. No doubt, these unions would say that they are building collective power to deliver greater benefits for workers in the long run. But unions should only enter such agreements from a position of strength built from the bottom-up and should only agree to negotiate from legal minimums not to them.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

The other major challenge platform workers face is growing digital surveillance and algorithmic control at work. There are three factors driving this trend: (i) technological maturation of platforms, (ii) managers resorting to hidden algorithmic control to conceal true management control so as to avoid further employment law liability and, (iii) regulation, particularly in the UK, has driven platforms to introduce flawed and poorly governed facial recognition and location checking systems. These technologies present new challenges for workers and resistance to them is developing. Workers will also need new rights to protect against employer excesses in this area.

Worker Info Exchange has been working hard in this area to establish a worker data trust and to litigate to achieve greater algorithmic transparency. The immediate pain point for workers is often a search for reasons for an unfair dismissal or suspension executed by automated means. But of more central importance is for workers to also know how they are profiled and how these profiles might be used in pervasive automated decisions concerning work allocation, pay, and performance management.

There is still much to do, but we believe a level informational playing field is an important step in reducing the asymmetry of power and the building of real collective bargaining power for platform workers.

James Farrar is Founder and Director of the Worker Info Exchange, which was set up to help platform workers secure their digital rights including access to data and to algorithmic transparency at work . He is also currently the GeneralSecretary of the App Drivers & Couriers Union (ADCU), which represented the lead claimants in the successful UK Supreme Court case against Uber for worker rights. 

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

A wave of worker-led unionization efforts in multiple countries is noteworthy. The recent unionization by Amazon warehouse workers in New York, after a failed attempt last year in Alibaba, is among the biggest worker-led victories in the past few years. Furthermore, gig workers in Canada (where I work) are also fighting vehemently for their labor rights. For example, the food delivery workers at Foodora secured their right to union in February 2020 in Ontario. Foodora afterwards announced its withdrawal from Canada in April. But Gig Workers United, supported by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, has won a CAD 3.46 million settlement that went to all Canadian couriers. Gig Worker United continued to play an active role in the fight against the latest provincial legislature in 2022, which ensured CAD 15/hour minimum wage for time on ‘assignment’, instead of all work time. All these suggest a continued and revived awareness of labor rights and a sense of solidarity in fighting against monopolistic platform companies among precarious app-based workers. 

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

The biggest challenges facing workers are fair and living wages, occupational safety and protections, collective bargaining rights with the platform companies, and social insurance. Another urgent challenge facing workers is their right to privacy, to log out, and to all the data collected about them by the platforms. Not just their right to get the data deleted when they decide to leave the platform, but to ensure workers can benefit collectively from the aggregation of their data to test, train, and optimize the algorithms and systems developed by the platform companies.

The hurdles to organizing are highly contextual. In some countries, worker-initiated unionization efforts are not allowed, while in other countries, misclassification of gig workers as independent contractors makes it impossible for workers to unionize. Given a general declining union participation rate globally, how to boost general workers' confidence in trade unions’ power is a cultural challenge. Along this line, how to conceive and develop worker collectives in forms other than traditional trade unions is a cultural and social challenge for workers, activists, scholars, policy makers, and the concerned members of the public.

Hurdles for fair work conditions stem from: (i) the monopolistic power of digital platforms over terms and conditions of app-based work and, (ii) lagging public policy or labor laws that are inadequate to hold the monopolistic platform companies accountable and responsible for  gig workers.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

Workers can play significant roles in auditing algorithms that may not only shed light on how to regulate algorithmic workplace and hold digital platform companies accountable, but also inform broader debate and policy-making in smart technology regulations for public good.  Decades-long neoliberalism-induced labor casualization and informalization across the world has meant that app-based workers, in developed and developing societies alike, share many labor struggles with their precarious counterparts in manufacturing, which includes but is not limited to, insecure wages, insufficient or minimum institutional labor protections, and declining bargaining power and access to social insurances. But what sets app-based work apart from other precarious employment is: (i) the role played by data capture and data-driven algorithms in the regulation of the labor process and, (ii) the quasi-monopolistic power digital platforms have over the labor force involved in the app-based labor market. Workers’ rights and work conditions are closely related to the operation and experiments of new algorithmic models by platform companies which is subject to the latter’s strategic business goals. The fairness, impact, and possible harms of these data-driven models are unknown to the public. Workers are at the frontline experiencing constantly changing algorithms. Consequently, they are in a strategically unique position to take part in informing the public about the social and economic consequences of algorithmic systems in practice.

Julie Yujie Chen is Assistant Professor in the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology at the University of Toronto (Mississauga) and holds a graduate appointment at the Faculty of Information (St. George). She studies the transformation of work and worker's life in relation to the digital technologies, capitalism, and globalization. She is the co-author of Media and Management (University of Minnesota Press, 2021) and Super-sticky WeChat and Chinese Society (Emerald, 2018).Chen publishes widely on issues of digital labor and platform studies. Her work has appeared in journals including New Media & Society, Socio-Economic Review, Javnost - The Public, Work, Employment and Society, Chinese Journal of Communication, and China Perspectives. Her full list of publications can be found at the Google Scholar page.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

App-based couriers and food delivery workers have made significant strides in the past few years. If we look at the state of global labor activism, in the Global North, it is invigorated by groups such as the UK-based International Alliance of App-based Transport Workers (IAATW) or the US-based Justice for App Workers. In the Global South, despite skepticism, workers in Indonesia and Thailand have had a series of strikes and even shown international solidarity for their Chinese fellows who were harassed by the state. I am always impressed by the depth of their analyses, which have advanced our understanding by exposing the realities of structural and technological injustice. Most importantly, in the face of capital’s attempts to erase workers as a class, these groups are showing that solidarity building across sectors and borders is indispensable. All of these are successes in themselves and deserve recognition. As we celebrate these small victories, it is important to acknowledge the dialectic of exploitation and awakening. In Thailand where I have closely worked with platform workers, tragically, flagrant exploitation and injustice have come as an awakening to many workers in the past few years. Such exploitation (e.g. poor working conditions, regular fatal accidents, and lack of protection) has pushed  workers to a tipping point to form the first food delivery union. It is crucial to recognize those who put their bodies on the line to advance the cause of labor justice.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

There are many challenges ahead of us. First of all, on-demand care workers such as domestic workers and massage therapists still face obstacles to organizing themselves. Based on my work with care workers who are mostly women, they are faced with unique challenges related to their working conditions. These include working in isolation and in private spaces and tending to unpaid care responsibilities. When the general public thinks about app-based or platform workers, they tend to think about the more visible ones which are overwhelmingly male-dominated sectors. Because these app-based courier and food delivery workers are led by men, their activism is largely shaped by a masculine culture. Therefore, another challenge in terms of movement building is an internal one but equally crucial: how to achieve inclusive representation and gender equality within labor organizations. In addition, in the Global South context where the informal economy is dominant and many workers are used to non-standard employment arrangements, only a small proportion of workers are familiar with unionism, and the union movement itself is small and fragmented. Under these conditions, workers have too small a base of societal support to contest the hegemony of the ‘partner’ euphemism which fortifies the capitalist discourse that we are all entrepreneurs. Moreover, their repertoire of strategies is often small because workers often find themselves reinventing the wheel. For these reasons, it is challenging for workers to advocate for legal changes.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

I believe that the persistent chasm between traditional and emerging labor movements represents an opportunity for strategic intervention. For me, traditional movements led by industrial trade unions have more than a moral obligation to support nascent platform labor movements. It is an existential crisis for the trade union movement as well. The mainstreaming of gig work is an attack on waged labor as we know it and so the stakes are high for all. On a deeper level, points of conflict are likely to deepen around questions of employee versus worker status and effective forms of organizing. Many workers now identify themselves with multiple labor platforms and the 1:1 relationship between employer and employee can no longer be assumed. Accordingly, some workers may not see a trade union, as narrowly defined by national laws, as the only form of effective organizing. In addition, there has long been a division of labor between trade unions organizing formal, waged workers, on the one hand, and labor NGOs organizing informal workers, on the other. The arrival of platform workers complicates this division as new relationships complicate this binary. Yet, organizationally speaking, many trade unions and NGOs tend to be inert and territorial. Although the changes I have outlined call for innovative and out-of-the-box solutions (such as a new way of organizing), Gramsci’s statement continues to ring true: “the crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born”. To move forward, our labor movements have a lot of work to do, internally and externally.

Kriangsak Teerakowitkajorn is a strategic researcher and social justice activist, who works extensively with labor movements in Thailand. Kriangsak holds a Ph.D. in Labour Geographies from Syracuse University. He is the founder and director of Just Economy and Labor Institute (JELI), a labor justice organization where he has led a series of action research on labor platforms and platform workers since 2017. His recent projects include On-demand Food Delivery: Emerging Realities in Thailand's Platform-mediated Work (2020) and Centering the Agency of Women Workers in Thailand's Platform-based Care Economy (forthcoming). Trained by the US-based Training for Change and Cornell ILR/AFL-CIO on facilitation and strategic corporate research respectively, Kriangsak combines skills in facilitation, consensus building, and campaign-based research to design strategic research relevant to labor movements. 

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

The gig economy has led to atomization of labor relations, where it is no longer clear who your boss is or if there is someone behind the app who evaluates your work, there is no meeting space between workers, while there is a biocontrol of your work and your movements. Despite this adverse scenario for organization, in recent years, digital platform workers worldwide have held international strikes, intercontinental dialogues, created unions, forwarded legal proposals for regularization, set up forums, research, and documentaries, among other things. The strength of the platform workers' movement is based on their conviction that their struggle is a struggle for the global working class because with the gig economy, the future of labor is at stake. Among the victories achieved by the labor movement is the momentum of union renewal that these workers have brought. This has led to rethinking who represents the union movement and embracing new forms of work, while modernizing internally with new technologies. Women migrant workers from delivery platforms are leading the struggle in some Latin American countries, generating debates on migrant regularization, protection from sexual harassment, and participation of young women in the labor movement. During the last few years, cases have been won in the labor courts of several countries in Europe and the Americas, regularization laws have been passed, and above all, it has been possible to insert into the social imaginary that labor rights are fundamental for our future.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

The advance of digital platforms in all aspects of our lives is frenetic. These business models seek to impose on a global scale a system of extended deregulation: fiscal and tax deregulation, labor deregulation, and market deregulation. Against this backdrop, platform workers face multi-billion dollar political and economic interests that go beyond the platform companies. One of the biggest challenges for platform workers is to break the siege of misinformation and the narrative of entrepreneurialism that these companies instill. While workers' organizations use their social networks to inform, companies accessing the email and phone base of all their workers, send mass messages with information against bills and regularization initiatives. However, the challenges and obstacles are not generated only from companies. Neoliberal governments in different countries propose greater labor deregulation, encourage the use of digital platforms by their population, and show platforms as valid and even necessary examples to generate sources of employment. Platform workers must take on the challenge of breaking the fear of reprisals that comes with organizing.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

Despite the automation and atomization of labor, digital platform workers have created bonds of cross-border solidarity. This is something that the trade union movement should also achieve by expanding dialogue with other sectors. It must appeal to the youth, change communication strategies, broaden the base of workers' representation, call for recognition as a working-class, fight to regain the sovereignty of time, and the right to disconnect. Thus, disputing the spaces of social networks, creating mobile applications and algorithmic management are key strategic fronts on which the working class needs to engage. Digital platform workers are using technology to their advantage. They have promoted the use of apps for their unions as a tool through which new members can join, hold meetings and assemblies, keep the status and minutes of their organization, and have information on labor rights. Apps have also been built to explain labor rights both in written and audio form for workers who cannot read. There are examples like these all over the world, where workers make creative use of technology and promote a new and renewed stage in labor struggles.

Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero is a feminist activist and researcher.  Founder  of Observatorio de Plataformas (Platform Observatory).  She has a  Master’s in Gender Studies from the Central European University (CEU).  Her fields of work are care work, decolonial feminism, gender, platform  economies, migration, and labour rights.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

Life in a digital world means workers use technology to work (telework), to find work (online recruitment and placement), sell their work (online stores), receive support and assistance as they work (call or contact centers), communicate (phone or video), receive pay or remit money (fintech), and seek care (telehealth and telemedicine), among other daily activities. Many of these activities do not necessarily engage consumers only nor directly because a significant portion of digital services is provided to businesses. Business process outsourcing plays a key role in the global value chains of the digital economy.

Not only has there been increased awareness of the role of digital technology in work and daily life, there has also been a strong recognition of the importance of essential workers inspiring stronger demands for these essential workers to have better and safer working conditions. We are already seeing successes among essential workers in companies providing services through digital platforms.

We now have an example of a labor agreement won by Spanish trade unions with a major food delivery corporation that includes the rights to information and consultation during the process of algorithm development. In the Netherlands, a court has ruled that drivers working with platform-based service companies are covered by the collective labor agreement of the sector for transport of goods. Another important development, this time led by Italian unions, is the recognition by a court that algorithms for booking work shifts do not make neutral decisions, resulting in discriminatory practices that hinder trade union activities. As unions continue to achieve successes, we need to ensure that these victories are codified in laws and regulations with appropriate support for enforcement to avoid a race to the bottom.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

The challenges are enormous. While using technology at work and, indeed at home, workers find themselves under surveillance by management algorithms that collect data to automate decision-making. These processes immediately raise concerns over increased surveillance and control, replication of bias and discrimination, poorer transparency, and lower corporate accountability.

Artificial intelligence, covering a very broad spectrum of machine learning activities, becomes useful for programmers and coders since the approach hastens learning processes as new data arrives. However, artificial intelligence derives from the life experience of their designers, thus reflecting the designers’ particular sets of beliefs and perspectives of their creators. There is also bias in the datasets that without prior knowledge of the sources of the bias may lead to machine-produced decisions that repeat social inequalities or, worse, exacerbating them.

Trade unions, labor organizations, and human rights organizations are rarely, if at all, involved as co-designers in technological innovations and in artificial intelligence. Social justice movements, therefore, need to develop their own version of algorithmic accountability and machine learning processes that promote human rights intentionally. In the same way that there are human rights impact assessments to determine the effects of policies of various population groups, we will want to see how artificial intelligence can be used to support or encourage union organizing, reduce workplace violence and harassment, and improve working conditions. How do societies create artificial intelligence whose rationality is predicated in promoting, protecting, and fulfilling human rights?

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

The International Trade Union Confederation and most of the global union federations, including UNI Global Union, have agreed on guidelines to ensure that new technologies do not undermine fundamental labor rights. Strong labor law legislation and enforcement secures the environment for unions to engage in collective action for corporate accountability and for strengthening worker power. These guidelines, however, need to be updated regularly, especially because of the fast-paced developments in the sector. In other words, we need to constantly redefine the Decent Work Agenda in the digital economy.

Personally, I find the feminist principles for the internet inspiring. These principles could have a stronger section on the economy with plenty of potential for adapting, if not adopting, labor’s approaches. And I can also see how trade unions can be inspired by the possibilities of a feminist internet. Ultimately, however, the struggle for social justice movements lies at the crossroads that bring the digital world, feminist economics, and a green new deal together to push the new millennium onto a sustainable trajectory.

Dr. Marina Durano is a feminist economist currently working with UNI  Global Union as their Adviser on Care Economy and Partnership  Engagements. 

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

Some of the victories include (primarily) online organizing around social media (especially Twitter) to raise and address labor rights issues around the gig economy. This movement building has also been accompanied by creating awareness around employment opportunities, and platform rating from an employee/contractor perspective. We have also witnessed the raising of issues that affect platform workers.

The organizing around social media has also led to offline community mobilization of workers and development of communities which are (hopefully!) nascent labor movements.We’re also seeing the development of more local platforms developed by/for the countries the platform is operating in, which could have the effect of bringing the management (physically) closer to the platform workers.

Certain laws have been put in place to try and redress the lack of employment opportunities for women, young people, persons with disabilities, etc. In Kenya, this includes the Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO), which requires that 30% of procurement be reserved for youth, women and/or PWD. The Kenyan Government is also in the process of mass digitization of national and county government records (e.g. court and other judicial proceedings), which promises to employ large numbers of youth. While the benefits of this have not fully materialized, this remains an avenue for platform workers working on government gigs/ platforms.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

Establishing a platform requires some sort of capital expenditure, be it taxi purchase for cab drivers, or smart phones for domestic workers, etc. This capex acquisition is sometimes accompanied by exploitation and problematic issues. For instance, Uber drivers in Kenya were saddled with loans that they could no longer pay after Uber slashed prices and also introduced new terms and conditions that made it harder to repay these loans.

Kenyan gig domestic workers comprise a small fraction of the larger domestic workforce in the country. Some companies have taken steps towards creating platforms that allow workers access to clients who pay better, and that also improve working conditions. Unfortunately, any steps towards the improvement of working conditions is hard as there is significant ‘over supply’ of labor because of  the high unemployment rate in the country, which has made the sector hard to unionize in a significant way.

Some of the benefits of being on a fair platform for domestic workers, for e.g. ability to save and pool funds, assumes ability to get a certain minimum of work. Covid-19 led to a general decline in need for domestic workers as more employers stayed indoors. Consequently, this has not translated to the benefit it was hoped to be.

Platforms exclude undocumented workers, for e.g. people from stateless communities like Nubians in Kenya who historically faced difficulty getting documentation; or non Kenyan domestic workers; trans and inter-sex persons; and those seeking anonymity due to personal safety and security reasons. Being on platforms also comes with a certain ‘regularization’ of labor, i.e. documentation on the Revenue Service, which requires a certain amount of knowledge about filing of taxes and returns. Some people have fallen afoul of the Revenue Authorities with the attendant penalties for this.

The blunt instruments used by platforms to ostensibly crack down on fraud has also led to a case where Kenyans working on international jobs have reported significant frustration from being locked out of their payment accounts with no reason given. For instance, Kenyans have reported being locked out of their PayPal accounts for months on end, with no resolution seemingly in sight.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

The ability of platforms to employ workers in jurisdictions with weaker labor rights is something that will likely continue. This, combined with troubling private-public partnerships that use taxpayer (or non-profit) money to promote these partnerships, is something that has the potential for weakening labor rights even further.

While the multinational nature of the gig economy has translated to exploitation of workers across borders and jurisdictions, it also provides opportunity for transnational organizing, activism, and rights claiming. Recently, Facebook/Meta and its vendors/subcontractors came under stark scrutiny for the treatment of African content moderators after an expose by Time Magazine. The power of the media, and social media to link struggles across borders promises opportunities for workers.

Mendi Njonjo is director of Hivos East Africa. She is a feminist and a fervent champion of environmental justice. She has over 25 years’ experience supporting non-profit and grant-making organizations in their fund management, strategy development and policy formulation. She has set up and implemented programs that use technology to encourage good governance and prevent conflict, that promote women’s right to bodily autonomy and economic justice, that defend human rights, and more lately, that work on sustainable agriculture and renewable energy. While she has been involved in various programs globally, most of her work has centered on East Africa.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

Problems faced during the pandemic (debts, no relief package from companies, and loss of work/earnings) have convinced  workers that the business model they are implicated in is an exploitative one. The realization has increased awareness and spurred workers to  learn  more about labor rights. NGOs, unions like the Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT) and others, tried to reach out to the workers during the pandemic. This has given them hope. Print and social media have also been giving more coverage to the problems of platform workers over the last few years. This is creating a ripple effect-- growing customer and public anger and in turn, a growing sense of hope among the workers. Exemplifying this, the announcement from food delivery platform Zomato on 22 March regarding its new push for 10-minute deliveries  immediately resulted in an editorial in The Indian Express on 24 March asking, ‘What’s the Hurry?’ It also caused backlash on social media with questions being raised about the safety of delivery agents.

The inclusion of platform workers in India’s Social Security Code, registration through e-Shram cards, pressure and rising demand to enact rules and coverage of beneficial social security schemes are positive steps for the labor movement. The judiciary accepting litigations and judicial pronouncements in various courts aimed at taming and regulating platform companies are also positive indicators for workers.

In addition, during the pandemic, migrant workers and gig workers became iconic figures of informalized employment systems spotlighting, for the public at large and the judiciary, the ills afflicting the world of work and the need for urgent redressal. We hope the labor movement is able to capitalize on this empathy to push for significant reforms.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

The foremost problem that confronts  platform workers is the issue of misclassification of their employment status as “independent contractors/partners’’. This puts them outside the ambit of collective bargaining and protection of labor laws. Livelihood security is another big challenge as platform workers remain overworked and underpaid, forced to bear the increasing risks of company strategies without being compensated or protected. Deactivation (equivalent to being fired) also remains a very big tool in the hands of the companies to punish or scare workers. Of course, there is no grievance redressal process in place for the workers and this compounds the problem.

Organizing these workers (drivers and delivery riders) is difficult due to the mobile nature and punishing schedules of their work, fear of loss of work, high turnover and attrition, no experience or knowledge about unions, etc. Also considering the huge numbers of such workers in the economy, unions/associations have only managed to reach out to a very small fragment of these workers, and that too only in metro cities. Tier II & tier III cities, which are witnessing exponential growth of platform-based drivers and riders, have still not witnessed any outreach by unions/associations. The overall organizing in these sectors is still at a nascent stage.

Due to rising litigation, government and judicial interventions in the developed northern economies, some companies here, have thrown crumbs of fair work conditions like accident insurance, medical insurance, on-call doctors, educational scholarship programmes, etc. But these are more to retain riders rather than to improve contractual obligations.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

An organized and unionized workforce remains the best strategic intervention for the future of these workers. While fighting ‘misclassification’ is definitely the ultimate goal, it seems to be a fruit hanging on higher branches, out of reach as yet. Improved pay-outs, increased minimum per kilometer rates, regulated hours of work, overtime and extreme climate event payments (during heatwaves, floods, pandemic, etc), leave, and social security – all these adhering to fair work conditions are some of the lower hanging fruits, which the labor movement has to strive to achieve for the platform workers.

Social security for all and coverage and benefit schemes for platform workers are also issues which should be on top of the agenda for unions and civil society organizations working in this sector. Representation of labor unions on Social Security Boards along with representatives of online transport and delivery companies will also open up opportunities for engagement, dialogue, and building relationships between workers representatives and platforms.

Crucial points of conflict and struggle moving forward, remain the disguised and fraudulent status of employment. At some point, there will also be a struggle with the government, which has touted that the platform and online model of businesses have generated massive employment. “What kind of employment” - is going to be the issue of conflict. Governments have so far shied away from enforcing any kind of rule-based regulation. These businesses have grown and expanded like multi- headed hydra, disrupting established rules of corporate governance and ethics and even political governance and democracy based on rule of law. These will be crucial points of conflict and struggle for the labor movement going forward.

Rakhi Sehgal is a labour researcher and trade union activist. She is Partner and Research Head at Action Research Associates (ARA), a research and training consultancy firm.  She supports the Gurgaon Shramik Kendra, Gurgaon Shramik Sangathan, and Gurgaon Mahila Kaamgar Sangathan in Haryana. Rakhi works on issues of contract labour, social reproduction of labour, industry 4.0 and future of work, violence at the workplace, and industrial relations, with a focus on the garment and automobile industries; as well as on issues of climate justice and just transition for workers. She is currently coordinating an ILO project on industrial relations in the Indian garment industry in 3 locations - Bangalore, Gurgaon & Tirupur and  is leading a project on assessing the impact of the DDU-GKY skilling scheme on the lives of migrant women workers in the Gurgaon garment industry, as part of the Azim Premji University Research Grants program.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

In 2022, workers in the gig economy achieved some legislative victories, but a long road ahead remains to tangibly improve working conditions. Platform worker organizing has resulted in wins that pushback against intentional worker misclassification and improve working conditions for delivery workers. Prior legislation funded and strongly supported by platform companies that sought to chip away at worker rights has been ruled unconstitutional. And at the macro level, the Biden administration appointed labor friendly officials to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and affirmed a strong pro-union stance in public messaging. None of these wins go unchallenged with platform companies promising to appeal court rulings, but more and more company campaigns, appeals, and other missteps are sparking worker organizing.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

In the gig and platform economy, collaborative organizing remains difficult, sometimes even fractured. Workers face a continued uphill battle against well-financed platform companies that have the resources to drag out legislative processes, most notably the “Proposition 22” campaign in California last year, with over USD 200 million from Uber, Instacart, and other companies to create a labor law exemption for themselves. But ‘gig’ workers, community members, and the voting public also face an identity question as campaign messaging pushes the view that workers “do not want to be employees''. While the majority of people under capitalism have negative associations and even grievances with work and bosses, this belief enables rollbacks of employee rights and protections for all workers who deserve more – from minimum wage and overtime pay to bereavement benefits if killed doing a ride-hail or delivery job, the tragic inspiration behind workers forming The App-Based Drivers Union of Bangladesh, which now represents over 30% of the workforce.

While many unions, think tanks, labor lawyers, and other allies have shown up for this struggle, platform labor organizing needs to follow worker leadership, not third party advocates. The recent triumph of independent worker-led activist groups to oppose damaging legislation, especially Los Deliveristas bike couriers in NYC, showcases the potential of grassroots organization to enact meaningful change for all platform workers. However, we must temper enthusiasm for worker leadership with healthy suspicion of workerism – the romantic overemphasis on ‘workers’, which can fail to center more vulnerable workers with greater needs, and which can result in a blanket rejection of allies with technical knowledge or other abilities. Instead, we need intentional, accountable collaborations between workers, community members, and academics to mobilize the skill, funding, and resources to fight for improved platform labor working conditions, in particular unjust data-enclosure. Gig platforms continue to subtly, persistently lock up worker data assets and use them not only to gain short-term financial profit, but to control the narratives surrounding platform labor. These data assets could enable workers to back up arguments about misclassification, discrimination, and unjust termination using data as evidence. However, platforms’ enclosure of these assets makes it near impossible for workers to engage in “data rhetoric”, hamstringing their ability to control narratives about themselves and their work.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

Workers and allies have been engaging in collaborations to regain control over data assets in addition to building ad-hoc infrastructures that ameliorate platform working conditions. Collectives such as The Worker Info Exchange and WeClockIt are providing workers with tools to quantify their workday and systematically gather and aggregate evidence of their working conditions. These efforts are made possible by collaborations between workers, technologists, academics, and activists. Platform workers and their allies in the U.S. and abroad have been building their own informal support systems, ranging from dispersed e-bike charging stations to an entire gray market app ecosystem to improve delivery drivers’ experiences. These intentional and productive collaborations are key in bettering working conditions for platform laborers. 

The future of platform worker labor organizing should be firmly grounded in workers’ experiences and needs, but should also recognize and make room for the expertise and resources that allies, activists, academics, and technologists bring to their collective fight.

Samantha Dalal is a PhD student at CU Boulder focused on algorithmically mediated work.

Danny Spitzberg is a lead researcher with Turning Basin Labs, a staffing and training cooperative. 

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

The labor movement has won important battles in recent years in the context of platformization. First, unions and workers’ associations have been supporting litigation in courts to improve worker rights. In several countries, this has led to workers getting reclassified as employees, enabling them to access rights from which they were previously excluded, enhanced algorithmic transparency and data protection, and improved management practices. Second, through workers’ mobilization, they have forced a number of platforms to improve working conditions including, among others, raising pay, providing better health and safety protections, and making automated management more transparent. Third, in a few instances, they have been able to force companies to collectively bargain, though collective agreements in the platform economy still remain the exception rather than the rule. Last but not the least, the labor movement has been lobbying policymakers around the world, advocating for higher labor standards and better working conditions for platform workers. Their advocacy has informed legislative and regulatory proposals in several countries, in some cases culminating in important employment reforms.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

Disunity is the main hurdle to organizing. This hurdle characterizes some workers who are either apathetic to organizing or are pessimistic about the goals of organizing. On the one hand, apathetic workers choose to sit on the fence and observe rather than contribute to ongoing organizing efforts. For instance, some drivers are reluctant to pay regular dues to fund interim worker unions. Meanwhile, such funds are needed to run the unions – registration fees, communication costs, and consultancy fees. Workers perceive such contributions as burdensome on their already measly income. Without funding, volunteer leaders self-finance organizing efforts, thereby creating a sense of being a “lone fighter”, whose emergent autocratic disposition, unfortunately, further deepens passive workers’ apathy.  Everyone descends into a blame game arena. “Why did you do this?” “You didn’t inform anyone.” Then organizing efforts return to a lonely square one.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

Despite the many success stories from platform workers organizing across the world, there is still much more needed to ensure fair working conditions in the platform economy. For workers to advance their demands they must start aligning their efforts with other stakeholders. Governments and regulatory bodies in ever more countries are putting the regulation of the platform economy on their agenda. As regulators work to solve workers’ misclassification and update of existing labor laws, this will give workers’ struggles more resources and rights to draw on.

Consumers of platform labor are also an important stakeholder who can be addressed. Given platforms’ “ephemeral” nature, switching costs for platform customers are low, so platforms’ public reputation is a sensitive matter that can be leveraged to force platforms to change their business models. Fairwork is trying to leverage consumer power with the Fairwork pledge that seeks to generate public commitments by important consumers of platform labor to favor platforms that offer better working conditions and fair labor practices.

But the alignment of objectives is key here. For example, we see some regulatory initiatives that leave loopholes for platforms to circumvent regulation (for example in Spain) or that promote other employment practices, like subcontracting, that still leave workers vulnerable to exploitation and unfair labor practices. Changes to regulation also risks leading to mass firings, which will especially affect workers with irregular citizen status that rely on platform work to survive. Regulators must take this into account in these negotiations.  The same goes for potential conflicts between different unions. As some of the traditional unions in Europe start negotiating collective agreements with platforms, that might shadow the efforts of smaller unions and worker associations that have been at the forefront of platform worker struggles in the last few years.

Fairwork attempts to support the joint learning and knowledge sharing between stakeholders in this process. Our annual ratings highlight best and worst cases of platform work and can help inform actions of unions, policymakers, consumers, and also challenge platforms to compete for offering better working conditions. The ratings also reflect the latest regulatory successes and failures and hope to help improve and refine the strategies of the various stakeholders involved.

Fairwork Team:

Joseph Budu is Senior Lecturer and Head of  the Dept. of Information Systems and Innovation at the Ghana Institute  of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) as well as the Country  Manager for Fairwork Ghana.

Alessio Bertolini is a Postdoctoral Researcher for Fairwork at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at the University of Oxford.

Patrick Feuerstein is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Fairwork secretariat at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB).

Pablo Aguera Reneses is a Researcher in the Fairwork secretariat at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB).

Funda Ustek-Spilda is a Postdoctoral Researcher for Fairwork at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at the University of Oxford.

Matthew Cole is a Postdoctoral Researcher for Fairwork at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at the University of Oxford.

Mark  Graham is Director of the Fairwork project and Professor for Internet  Geography at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at the University of  Oxford.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

In the past few years, we have witnessed more organized movements initiated by gig workers around the globe. Because gig workers often work individually and not in direct contact with each other, social media, such as Whatsapp and Twitter have become an arena where workers connect with each other and voice their concerns against platforms’ (often) one-sided policies that impact them. These online interactions often also manifest in offline movements where workers organize a mass rally or strikes. While it is true that in the current landscape of economic slowdown, most workers rely heavily on their current job at the platform – which might make them hesitant in joining any action that may affect their job – I believe that there has also been growing awareness among workers on the power of collective actions.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

In Indonesia, a mass off-bid movement (riders and couriers turning off their apps) in several cities, shows how workers can organize a collective act of resistance despite working individually. These movements signal concerns to the important actors within the gig economy landscape in Indonesia: the government, the platform, and the consumers. The government as the regulator of the gig companies that operate within the country should take note on how this model of business should work towards achieving a sustainable economic condition for workers. Companies should also regard these concerns more seriously since their businesses rely on the availability of these workers to provide services to their customers. Consumers also can play a crucial role in changing the course of the business model by becoming an ally with the workers, voicing their concerns and supporting them in availing better working conditions.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

Achieving more sustainable working conditions for workers in the gig economy should not become worker collectives’ or union concerns only. Sustainable and fair work conditions have to be in the interests of all actors involved. Workers’ dissatisfaction and poor working conditions also become a loss in one way or another for the government, customers, and companies. Hence, in avoiding more risks and loss in the future, it is in our best interest to start making significant changes now.

Trevi is a junior lecturer in the Department of International  Relations and a researcher in the Center for Digital Society (CfDS)  within the Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Gadjah  Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Her research interests include  cybersecurity, digital society, and data and digital governance.

What do you count as some of the big victories of the labor movement in the past few years in the context of platformization?

The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the multiple vulnerabilities and inequalities faced by workers in the gig economy, particularly in the taxi and delivery sectors, where they played a key role in providing essential services during lockdowns. As these workers are classified as independent contractors or self-employed, they do not have access to work-related protections and social protections such as paid sick leave or sickness benefits. As their earnings are task-based, many workers had no option but to work during the pandemic and they faced severe occupational, safety, and health risks. The ILO rapid assessment survey findings show that many of these workers could not afford to take time off work and self-quarantine even if Covid-19 symptoms were to appear, thereby posing serious risks to themselves and to others.

There has clearly been an increased awareness of labor rights during this period. According to the Leeds Index of platform protest, which has tracked data on protest actions, there were 1,253 protest actions between 2017 and 2020 in 57 countries. These actions related to better working conditions such as pay (64%), employment status (20%), health and safety (19%), and regulatory issues (17%). The available evidence further seems to suggest that while strikes are associated with pay issues and working conditions, litigation has often focused on employment status and regulatory issues.         

Some of the big victories for the labor movement in the past few years are largely for workers in the taxi and delivery platforms, as it is easier to address them within national jurisdictions. These include the landmark judgement by the Supreme Court in the UK, which upheld the decision that the drivers were “workers” and were in a position of subordination and dependency in relation to Uber. Similarly, the Amsterdam District Court in the Netherlands found that Ola (taxi platform) had utilized entirely automated systems for penalties and upheld the decision that Ola was required to provide the claimants with their data. In Spain, trade unions played an important role in the royal decree‐law that established an employment relationship for workers on delivery platforms, and also granted the legal representatives of workers the right to information regarding algorithms that affect decision-making.

What are the biggest challenges facing workers in the present moment?

Gig workers face several challenges related to their working conditions. These include, irregularity of work, low pay, long working hours, with many having to work at night or during weekends, lack of access to social protection, occupational health and safety risks, lack of portability of ratings and data, among others. Some of these challenges are quite exacerbated for workers in developing countries where informality is rampant. On online freelance platforms, as workers compete globally, there is an intense competition, which leads to workers under-bidding or accepting work for free or performing tasks that they would otherwise decline, with the hope of improving their ratings and having regular access to work on platforms. This has led to a race to the bottom. The available evidence based on an ILO survey of workers on freelance platforms shows that workers residing in developing countries earn 60% less than those in developed countries. Similarly, while tracking workers on one of the major freelance platforms, we found that while most of the work on the platforms is posted by clients in the Global North, the work is largely performed by workers in the Global South where the median hourly earnings is half or one-third of that in developed countries. A major challenge with the current development trajectory of the digital economy is that it is pushing highly educated and skilled workers, especially in developing countries, into informality as many work under informal or precarious working arrangements instead of being employed in formal firms, and they also perform low-skilled and mind-numbing tasks which do not correspond to their education.

If we look at the taxi drivers, they earlier had their freedom, autonomy, and control over their work as they were self-employed workers. With the advent of platforms, these workers have lost their freedom, autonomy, and control as they are algorithmically managed. Taxi drivers often have little time to decide whether to accept a ride or not, and if they cancel the ride, they face repercussions such as not getting enough work, fall in their ratings or being deactivated from the platform. In addition, these workers are monitored using GPS on a continuous basis allowing platforms to collect data on the different aspects of their work processes. This data is then fed into algorithms, and workers have little information or understanding about how algorithms make decisions. The fear of not being able to have sufficient earnings and not knowing what determines their ratings and access to work leads many of the taxi drivers to work long hours (on average 65 hours per week).This increases their work intensity which has implications on their occupational safety and health risks.

There are significant challenges in organizing workers in the platform economy due to fragmentation of workplace, dispersion of workers across various geographies, and also as workers see each other as competitors, it can be difficult to organize them. There are also some legal challenges associated with organizing, as in some jurisdictions competition law prohibits self-employed workers from engaging in collective bargaining, on the basis that they constitute a cartel. However, despite these challenges, many workers have started to organize through associations, including through the use of technology such as via WhatsApp and Facebook groups, as was observed in the UK with the ‘digital picket line’ and in Argentina among delivery workers to address the issue of earnings.

What are key opportunities for strategic intervention for workers in the future?

While organizing workers in the gig economy has been challenging, workers have found different avenues for strategic interventions. The Bologna charter is one such attempt whereby, delivery platform workers organized themselves and built broad-based solidarity with other precarious workers, community groups, and academics and launched a large-scale media campaign to address issues around working conditions. This relationship led to the most valuable outcome at the local level – the bill of rights for digital workers in urban context or the Bologna charter in 2018. Existing experience also shows that social media such as Whatsapp, Facebook groups, or online forums are playing an important role in helping workers to organize on platforms and it can be quite an effective tool.

Moving forward, building cross-constituency support and solidarity will be particularly important for gig workers. This is especially so given the large imbalances of power between platform companies and gig workers. Data is going to be an important point of conflict in this regard, where platform companies wield control over and ownership of data. It allows them to use the ‘data-labor’ of workers, to not only monitor them and improve the efficiency of their services through machine learning algorithms, but also to create new products and enhance revenues, given that data has emerged as a key asset in the digital economy. At the same time, opaque algorithmic management practices is another aspect that requires greater scrutiny and is closely linked to data use by platforms that affects labor rights and working conditions.

Given that platforms operate across multiple jurisdictions, while regulatory responses have been rather diverse, a global social dialogue and regulatory cooperation between digital labor platforms, workers, and governments will be critical to more effectively and consistently approach the challenges to securing labor rights in the platform economy. In addition, the challenges created by the rise of the platform economy also cut across other fields of law and policy, such as competition, taxation, and artificial intelligence, where the labor movement would need to play an important role for ensuring decent work on digital labor platforms.

Uma Rani is Senior Economist at the Research Department, International Labour Organization. She holds a Ph.D in Development Economics from University of Hyderabad, India. Within the broad area of development economics, she has worked on informal economy, minimum wages and social policies. Since 2016, her research focuses on transformations in the digital economy, wherein she explores how labour and social institutions could be strengthened to ensure decent working conditions to workers, and to address economic and social inequality. She recently coordinated the major flagship report of the ILO, “World Employment and Social Outlook 2021: The role of digital labour platforms in transforming the world of work”.