The Fairwork Germany 2020 report (English; German) highlights how platforms in Germany fare in the working conditions they provide to their workers. This research is particularly timely in light of the COVID-19 public health crisis, which has brought the risks faced by front-line platform workers into sharp relief.
On his delivery route through Orange County, California, Joseph Alvarado made 153 stops one day last week for Amazon.com Inc, touching the inside and outside of his van, more than 225 packages, and dozens of customers’ doors and gates.
On 04 December, the Land of Bavaria’s Labor Tribunal in Munich delivered one of the first rulings on the legal status of online platform workers and deemed them not to hold employee worker status.
It feels like every day there are new articles or blog posts about how Uber drivers are exploited, or on the bad working conditions and safety standards for Deliveroo riders. In an era of ‘fake news’ can we trust that these are accurate? They most likely are, and I agree that things are not all rosy with regards to employment and working conditions of platform workers. But we should be careful with generalising from such messages that all platform work is bad.
Law Professor Jeremias Adams-Prassl explores the rise of the “algorithmic boss” and how artificial intelligence and the development of new technology has and will continue to impact the labour market.
The Verge interviews anthropologist Mary L. Gray about her new book with Siddharth Suri called Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
Gig-economy companies Lyft, Uber, and Postmates are racing to file IPOs this year, a mad dash replete with ever-increasing multibillion-dollar valuations. But is the rush to start trading on the public markets also a sprint to evade compliance with current labor law?
As part of the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, the European Commission has adopted a proposal for a Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed.
The European Parliament is expected to adopt a draft report on Thursday (15 June) calling on EU and national authorities to ensure “fair working conditions and adequate legal and social protection for all workers” in the collaborative economy.
The proposal for a Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions is a direct follow-up to the proclamation of the European Pillar of Social Rights.