In Light Of The Individualization Dispersal And Pervasive Monitoring: Employment At Work Research Paper, UCD, Ireland

Abstract

In light of the individualization, dispersal, and pervasive monitoring that characterize work in the ‘gig economy, the development of solidarity among gig workers could be expected to be unlikely. However, numerous recent episodes of gig workers’ mobilization require reconsideration of these assumptions. This article contributes to the debate about potentials and obstacles for solidarity in the changing world of work by showing the processes through which workplace solidarity among gig workers developed in two cases of mobilization of food delivery platform couriers in the UK and Italy. Through the framework of labor process theory, the article identifies the sources of antagonism in the app-mediated model of work organization and the factors that facilitated and hindered the consolidation of active solidarity and the emergence of collective action among gig workers. The article emphasizes the centrality of workers’ agential practices in overcoming constraints to solidarity and collective action and the diversity of forms through which solidarity can be expressed in hostile work contexts.

Keywords

collective action, gig economy, labor process, labor relations, mobilization, platform economy, solidarity.

Introduction

The emergence in recent years of the so-called ‘gig economy’ is disrupting established patterns of work organization and employment relations. The term ‘gig economy’ refers

to the parcelled nature of the small tasks or jobs (the ‘gigs’) that individuals are contracted to carry out by companies (often platforms) adopting this model of service provision. Gig economy companies adopt platforms as their operational model, using internet technology to act as de facto intermediaries of labor supply and demand for the provision of services – such as delivery, cleaning, admin, and data processing work. Gigs are allocated and managed digitally, often through algorithmic management methods. The number of workers engaged through platforms is growing rapidly. For instance, a survey by Huws et al. (2017) shows that in 2016–2017 between 9% and 22% of workers across seven European countries generated some income from gig work.

The gig economy can be regarded as the latest stage in the development of atypical forms of employment. Its growth has engendered considerable debate about its implications for regulatory and protective institutions (De Stefano, 2016). Gig’s work threatens established forms of regulation based on collective bargaining, creating legal ‘grey areas’ (Scholz, 2017: 125) where individuals are left without access to social safety nets. Yet, despite recent advancements in theorizing the labor process in the gig economy (Gandini, 2019; Veen et al., 2019), understanding of the social relations established between gig workers is still limited. In particular, the potentials, conditions, and limits for the emergence of solidarity and collective action among gig workers are only starting to be explored (cf. Lehdonvirta, 2016; Waters and Woodcock, 2017; Wood et al., 2018). This article aims to develop this understanding and contribute to this nascent stream of literature.

Workers’ solidarity is often conceptualized as the basis from which forms of collective action within and beyond the workplace can develop (Atzeni, 2010; Fantasia, 1988). Studying solidarity and its links to collective action in the gig economy is thus fundamental to understanding the labor movement’s prospects in the current phase of the transformation of the world of work. The emergence of solidarity and collective action among gig workers might have seemed unlikely, given the atomization and spatial dispersal characterizing their jobs and the imbalanced power relations between workers and platforms. Nonetheless, since 2016, various gig economy platforms – such as the ride-hailing app Uber or the food delivery platforms Deliveroo, UberEats, and Foodora – have attracted attention in several countries as epicenters of labor unrest. These episodes force scholars to question existing assumptions about the potential for the emergence of solidarity and, possibly, of collective action in this new frontier of precarious work.

This article tackles this task by developing a comparative analysis of two cases of ‘unlikely’ gig workers’ mobilization in the food delivery sector which have unfolded since 2016 in two different contexts: the case of Deliveroo riders in England, and the case of Foodora riders in Italy. The study addresses two research questions. First, how does solidarity emerge among gig workers? Second, in which forms does it manifest? The article will argue that despite some obstacles posed by the platform model of work organization, worker solidarity in the gig economy is possible and rooted in the structural antagonism intrinsic in the labor process. Its development, however, is not mechanistic but shaped by workers’ agential practices and by diverse contextual factors. While the focus is on food delivery platforms, the article offers insights on the potential for and limits to solidarity in the broader gig economy.