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The Struggle for Rights in the Gig Economy Anne Dufresne And

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The Struggle for Rights in the Gig Economy Anne Dufresne And Anne Dufresne and Cédric Leterme APP WORKERS UNITED The struggle for rights in the gig economy © Michael Bakas EUROPEAN PARLIAMENTARY GROUP European Parliament, B-1047 Brussels, Belgium +32 (0)2 283 23 01 [email protected] www.left.eu January 2021 Going forward, you will see us more loudly advocate for new laws like Prop 22, which we believe strike the balance between preserving the flexibility that drivers value so much, while adding protections that all gig workers deserve …. It’s a priority for us to work with governments across the U.S. and the world to make this a reality” Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO, 5 November 2020. “We have come here (in the European GA) to breathe new life into the sentiment of unity. Feeling like members of a community is what feeds into our strength, what allows us to stand up against this individualism that seems to be triumphing everywhere. It is the understanding that the root of all of our struggles is the same. This is why we have to fight together in the struggles we face, but also those facing all workers. It is only by standing shoulder to shoulder that we can feel part of this community”, IWGB Courier, at the beginning of the European GA, 25 October 2018. “The more complex the world, the more essential solidarity becomes, the harder it is to live with”. Edgar Morin, Penser l’Europe, 1987. TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................7 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 18 Part A: Context and challenges of platform work ....................................................................... 21 1. “Platform work”: what are we talking about? ..................................................................... 22 1.1 The rise of on-demand labour platforms .......................................................................... 22 Platformisation of the economy and centrality of “data” ............................................. 22 Platforms are dominating the 21st century economy ................................................... 24 Crisis of 2008 and a new generation of platforms ........................................................... 24 An uncertain future ...................................................................................................................... 26 1.2 Characteristics and operations ........................................................................................ 26 “Lean” platforms ............................................................................................................................. 26 Standardisation and outsourcing of work taken to the extreme ............................... 27 Harvesting and monopolisation of data ............................................................................... 27 1.3 Quick classification of on-demand labour platforms .............................................. 28 Five distinguishing criteria ........................................................................................................ 28 “Ethical” platforms? ...................................................................................................................... 29 2. Consequences of platform work .............................................................................................. 31 2 2.1 Legal uncertainties and insecurity ....................................................................................... 31 Work which inverts traditional concepts… of work ........................................................ 31 Platforms play the ambiguity card deliberately................................................................ 31 A triple negation of wage rights .............................................................................................. 32 Contractual asymmetry between workers and the platform ..................................... 33 2.2 Degradation of working conditions ................................................................................ 33 Weak and uncertain remuneration ........................................................................................ 33 Excessively long and unstable working hours ................................................................... 34 Flouting of health and safety .................................................................................................... 34 Lack of career prospects ............................................................................................................. 34 Alienation and bogus self-employment ............................................................................... 35 Difficulties with meaning and recognition .......................................................................... 35 Individualisation and fragmentation of labour relations .............................................. 36 2.3 Negative externalities and concentration of power ............................................... 37 Disruption of whole sectors ...................................................................................................... 37 Weakening of labour rights and social security ................................................................ 38 Monopolisation and appropriation of data ......................................................................... 38 B. Strategies to tackle naked labour .................................................................................................. 40 1. Targeting platforms: building a collective glocal actor ................................................... 41 1.1 Forming new collectives...................................................................................................... 41 Forming a community despite being separated in time and space ........................... 42 Aggregate: thanks to social networks, leaflets and meeting places ......................... 43 Organising: together with or on the fringes of trade unions ....................................... 44 3 Supporting or affiliating platform workers ......................................................................... 47 1.2 Mobilising on the internet or on the streets ............................................................... 49 Reinventing the strike and direct action .............................................................................. 50 Convergence of struggles .......................................................................................................... 54 Real gains, but fragile and limited ........................................................................................... 55 1.3 Federating: obviousness of the transnational “leap” ................................................... 55 The Transnational Federation of Couriers General Assembly ................................... 56 The operating manual of the transnational struggle ...................................................... 56 Strikes and international alliances following the pandemic ........................................ 58 1.4 Challenges: Towards transnational collective action and new digital rights..... 60 One major achievement: the construction of a “glocal” collective actor ............... 60 An internationalism still largely to be built ......................................................................... 63 Organising precarious workers beyond uberisation: towards cybertariat? ......... 64 Demanding new “digital” labour rights ................................................................................. 65 2. Acting on the law: the status war ............................................................................................. 70 2.1 Judges facing platforms: the reclassification conquest .............................................. 70 Overview of the most recent court decisions .................................................................... 71 The “freedom” to switch on the app and to switch off labour law ............................. 72 Justice to the couriers’ rescue: beacons of hope for salaried workers ................... 73 2.2. But what are the States doing? The Spanish model against the Uber Law and European third statuses .......................................................................................................... 74 American-style under-employment: the “digital self-employed”. ............................ 75 European-style sub-employment: third statuses ............................................................. 78 4 Unconditional employment, Spanish-style: salaried work ........................................... 82 Which European Directive? ...................................................................................................... 84 2.3. Unsuitable Industrial relations systems ........................................................................... 87 The Nordic model: negotiating with platforms ................................................................. 88 The difficult sectoral negotiations.......................................................................................... 91 Certifying the ethics of micro-worker platforms ............................................................. 94 2.4. Battle for the very contours of the digital economy ................................................... 96 Global offensive
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