Research Information System
ILERA 2022 European Congress, Barcelona, Spain, 8 - 10 September 2022, pp.147-148
In the technologically advanced societies of the 21st century precarious forms of work are
increasingly replacing traditional employment relations, posing organizational, social, and legal
challenges. The recent increase in telework due to the pandemic led to a further increase in all
types of platform work which has become a major issue and yet, in many countries, is still lacking
clear rules and regulations.
My communication proposers to show how the evolution of the digital economy challenges
collective bargaining institutions and actors by comparing developments in the United States
and the European Union regarding the legal status and right to organize of platform workers.
In the US and the EU the gig economy and platform work generally refer to forms of employment
relations characterized by non-permanent or short-term contracts with few benefits, such as
contingent work, self-employment, temporary agencies, and app based platform work. However
not all workers in the gig economy are underpaid drivers or food delivery riders, controlled
through app-based companies. According to certain estimates, professional workers also
account for a sizable share of the contingent workforce in the US and the EU. Many of these
professionals are highly skilled and educated, and sometimes have comfortable incomes, but
are (by choice or not) in non-permanent employment relations lacking job security and its fringe
benefits and protections. Furthermore, in the US since many of these workers are considered
as self-employed and not as employees, it is almost impossible for them to join labor unions and
organize collective actions to improve their conditions.
Nevertheless, in California the AB5 Bill (California Assembly Bill 5), enacted in September 2019,
was viewed as having the potential to reshape the gig economy by forcing app-based companies
to treat independent contractors as "employees" with the attached rights and labor protections,
such as job benefits and pay guarantees, which do not apply to independent contractors. After
analyzing the context leading to this legislation as well as its implications and effects, I will
compare these developments to the currently proposed EU Directive on improving working
conditions in platform work which would grant legal employment status to platform workers.
In both cases my communication will outline the organizing drives and lobbying efforts behind
the evolution of these legal definitions that categorize platform workers either as independent
contractors or as employees and also the challenges and implications of these regulations for
the participation and collective representation of platform workers.
My conclusion will focus on the strategy of the different actors involved and the factors leading
to the emergence of these industrial relations arrangements stemming from the evolution of
digitalization.