Concept and criticism of digital labour platforms

The Macro Frames of Microwork: A Study of Indian Women Workers on AMT in the Post-Pandemic Moment

Digital platforms are a new reality of today’s global economy and the major driving force of its development. Digital labour platforms are a fast-growing element of the global labour market; they ensure interaction between customers and service providers, concentrate digital labour capital, and are actually beyond the scope of monitoring and regulation exercised by national institutions. Digital labour platforms shift the drawbacks of national labour markets online and scale them. The purpose of the article is to study the features of the formation and development of digital labour platforms, identify social and economic risks of such employment and develop the ways to adapt state regulation. The essential aspects of employment services on digital platforms have been explored and positive and negative aspects of digital employment platforms have been identified. Emphasis is placed on the study of peculiarities of employment through digital platforms. It has been found out that digital platforms help to minimize workforce within companies, but at the same time, they increase the use of freelance work. Digital platforms have proved to promote non-standard employment, shift and scale the drawbacks of national labour markets into online space. A comparative analysis of the main characteristics of employment through digital platforms in terms of on-hire employment and self-employment has been made. It has been justified that the provision of services through digital platforms has mixed signs of employment and self-employment. It has been determined that the main risks of employment through digital platforms for Ukraine are scaling up shadow employment in online space, weakening the country’s labour potential and the lack of social protection. The ways to minimize risk and adapt national employment policy to the challenges of digitalization of the economy have been offered. It has been substantiated that the main measures for the national employment policy adaptation are: normative regulation of the terminology and criteria for such employment, development and implementation of tools for its monitoring and regulation, launch of a common health insurance system of those who are employed through digital platforms.

The commercial audiobook arena is a generative site for studying how the value laden designs of digital labor platforms are impacting workers along intersectional lines. Though a global multi-billion-dollar industry that can be traced back to Edison's invention of the phonograph, audiobooks remain relatively understudied, particularly as it relates to audiobook labor. If we are to construct an equitable and just digital labor future, it is critical that we understand how workers experience the work. Additionally, to develop worker protections and policies that are attune to the racialized and gendered dimensions of platform labor, we must be in conversation with diverse workers. This work takes a closer look at Amazon's Audiobook Creation Exchange (AXC) labor platform and centers the experiences of US-Latina audiobook narrators as Amazon has held a virtual monopoly of digital audiobooks. The lack of regulatory frameworks has allowed Amazon free rein to obfuscate and infuse unjust labor practices via the design of its platforms. This allows it to control and surveille the workers and the work, while keeping itself out of reach from accountability. I center U.S.-based Latinas in my analysis because they bring multidimensional perspectives that are critical to detangling how power is operationalized in the digital economy. And, while geographically located within the U.S., Latina voices are under-represented in media, policymaking, and digital/platform labor scholarship. Thus, the North/South binary does not offer a space but, instead, furthers US-Latina invisibility. By employing a braided Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis (CTDA) and Latina Feminist approach, I surface the ways that an emphasis on Latinas furthers our understanding of platform work. While some of their experiences may not be unique to Latinas, centering these women brings to focus issues and practices embedded within labor platform design that may not be considered from white and/or single-axis perspectives.

We contribute empirical and conceptual insights regarding the roles of digital labor platforms in online freelancing, focusing attention to social identities such as gender, race, ethnicity, and occupation. Findings highlight how digital labor platforms reinforce and exacerbate identity-based stereotypes, bias and expectations in online freelance work. We focus on online freelancing as this form of working arrangement is becoming more prevalent. Online freelancing also relies on the market-making power of digital platforms to create an online labor market. Many see this as one likely future of work with less bias. Others worry that labor platforms' market power allows them to embed known biases into new working arrangements: a platformization of inequality. Drawing on data from 108 online freelancers, we discuss six findings: 1) female freelance work is undervalued; 2) gendered occupational expectations; 3) gendered treatment; 4) shared expectations of differential values; 5) racial stereotypes and expectations; and 6) race and ethnicity as an asset. We discuss the role of design in the platformization and visibility of social identity dimensions, and the implications of the reinforced identity perceptions and marginalization in digital labor platforms.

By examining digital labor platforms that connect customers with gig workers, we attempt to solve the puzzle concerning why these labor platforms, such as ride-hailing companies and food delivery companies, continue to suffer weak profitability even though they promise a more efficient way to mobilize and utilize the platform’s labor force. Stylized facts on the profitability of the top ten global labor platforms and a descriptive analysis of their cost structures are presented. We further argue that the modes of production and competition inherent in digital labor platforms are critical to this profitability puzzle because they determine the upper limit of surplus value extraction in production and the heavy financial burden of profit generation for labor platforms. JEL Classification: P12, E24, D40

La llamada “economía colaborativa” es un tema muy debatido. Uber, Airbnb, Helpling y muchos otros modelos de negocios basados en plataformas buscan “trastocar” aquellas industrias que describen como “anquilosadas” y poco amigables para el usuario. Estos jugadores afirman estar creando nuevos servicios más flexibles y rentables. En efecto, las nuevas plataformas que sirven como intermediarias entre la oferta y la demanda, tienen muchas contribuciones valiosas para ofrecer.Sin embargo, las nuevas plataformas se encuentran cada vez más asediadas por las críticas. Por lo general, estas dependen de una fuerza laboral conformada por trabajadores independientes [independent contractors], que trabajan por cuenta propia y bajo su propio riesgo, por salarios bajos y sin ningún tipo de seguridad social. En este sentido, ni los proveedores de la plataforma ni sus clientes asumen el papel y las responsabilidades de un empleador.Las leyes laborales, la protección de los trabajadores, las normas de salud y seguridad, la calidad del trabajo y las cargas sociales recaen principalmente sobre los trabajadores, quienes tampoco tienen derecho al tipo de participación común en otros sectores. Los clientes de las plataformas obtienen acceso a una fuerza laboral a demanda [on-demand], mientras que los trabajadores que proveen la mano de obra están sujetos a condiciones laborales precarias.En este contexto, la Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) decidió examinar más de cerca los modelos de negocio digitales basados en plataformas y sus implicancias para la economía y la sociedad. Si bien las plataformas digitales han llegado a desempeñar un rol relevante en muchas ramas de la economía, la presente publicación se centra en las más controvertidas sociopolíticamente, es decir, las plataformas de trabajo digital [digital labour platforms]. El estudio explica los mecanismos básicos de las tres caras de los mercados de trabajo digital y compara sus variantes y subcategorías. También explica las características específicas y los desafíos de las diferentes categorías y propone puntos de partida para la toma de decisiones políticas.

This book shows how to design labour rights to effectively protect digital platform workers, organise accountability on digital work platforms, and guarantee workers’ collective representation and action. It acknowledges that digital work platforms entail enormous risks for workers, and at the same time it reveals the extent to which labour law is in need of reconstruction. The book focuses on the conceptual links – often overlooked in the past – between labour law’s categories and its regulatory approaches. By explaining and analysing the wealth of approaches that deconstruct and reconceptualise labour law, the book uncovers the organisational ideas that permeate labour law’s categories as well as its policy approaches in a variety of jurisdictions. These ideas reveal a lack of fit between labour law’s traditional concepts and digital platform work: digital work platforms rarely behave like hierarchical organisations; instead, they more often function as market organisers. The book provides a fresh perspective for international academic and policy debates on the regulation of digital work platforms, as well as on the purposes and foundations of labour law. It offers a way out of the impasse the debate around labour law classification has reached, by showing what labour law could learn from digital law approaches to platforms – and vice versa.

The digital labour economy is a system where work is mediated through digital technologies and online platforms. Work is often also called platform labour or gig work. China has brought out new labour protections to promote and support these new forms of employment (NFE) to address gaps in existing labour rights, personal data protection, and AI governance. However, a new type of work in the digital labour economy is creative digital platform work, which is distinct from other kinds of digital work and gig work that only uses AI and digital platforms to receive work, gigs, and tasks. Visual artists’ work is mediated by multiple digital software, AI programs, platforms, and apps. However, they do not have the usual ‘labour relationship’ like gig workers or platform labourers, as they are not employed by any single platform.

We advance the concept of deconstructed identity to explain how online workers' identities are being reshaped, diminished and controlled by digital labor platforms. We focus on online freelance workers and contribute to contemporary conceptualizations regarding worker's self-presentation. The empirical basis for our analysis and theorizing build from two rounds of a longitudinal panel study of online freelance workers and their interactions with online labor platforms. Findings illuminate how online freelancer's identity presentation is constrained by the structuring of their profile, the ratings and client feedback, the algorithms used by the digital platform, and platform's terms of use. Data demonstrate that workers' profiles are focused on skills, reflecting the realities of competing for work in under-regulated labor markets. Study participants report the centrality of client and platform ratings of their work, and the need to manage client feedback and ratings as a core part of their online identity presentation. These findings suggest that, far from a subjective and personal story, a freelancer's identity on a digital labor platform is better understood as a standardized depiction of skills, ratings, and metrics controlled by platform algorithms. Coupled with use policies and evolving platform designs, this platform control creates what seems to be a form of indentured servitude. We further note online freelancers both recognize this control and resist their deconstructed identity.

Platform workers are a new category of laborers who provide services or labor through digital platforms. They exhibit a dual nature of both autonomy and dependence. While they are typically classified as self-employed under contractual terms, in practice, they are subject to substantial control by platforms through algorithm-based task assignments, performance evaluations, and compensation systems—characteristics similar to those of employees under labor law. As of 2023, the number of platform workers in South Korea is estimated at approximately 2.4 million, accounting for about 8.5% of the total workforce. Major occupations include food delivery, substitute driving, translation, and IT development. These workers experience wide income disparities across job types, low employment stability, and limited access to social insurance systems—evidenced by an employment insurance coverage rate of only 48.2%. Under current tax law, their income is generally classified as business income or other income because of the absence of formal employment contracts and the performance-based nature of their earnings. Although a 3.3% withholding tax is applied, the self-reporting system leads to high risks of underreporting, and many workers lack the tax knowledge needed to fulfill their filing obligations. Labor and tax laws interpret the legal status of platform workers differently. Labor law considers the actual level of control to determine worker status, potentially recognizing platform workers as employees. However, tax law treats them as independent contractors based on contractual independence, assigning tax obligations to the individuals themselves. This legal inconsistency results in unequal tax treatment and a lack of fairness. To address this, several European countries have introduced the concept of “quasi-employees”—workers who, while formally self-employed, receive certain labor protections and simplified tax procedures (e.g., simplified bookkeeping, partial withholding). South Korea has relatively advanced tax infrastructure, operating electronic filing support systems like the “Simplified Filing” and “One-Click Refund” programs. In contrast, Japan relies largely on voluntary compliance and has only recently begun considering the implementation of the OECD Model Reporting Rules. In conclusion, it is urgent to reform the tax system to better reflect the actual working conditions and legal status of platform workers. Labor law must refine the criteria for determining employee status, while tax law should enhance flexibility and improve support for self-filing. Strengthening platform operators’ data reporting obligations is also essential to ensure income transparency and achieve tax justice in the digital economy.

Digital labour platforms are able to structure work to limit paid working time, extract fees from workers to access labour, and shift costs associated with occupational safety and health (OSH) compliance onto platform workers. We call this unpaid work the ‘platform discount’. Unpaid labour is embedded within platforms’ competitive strategies as platforms operate with labour oversupply while clients use multiple platforms to search for the cheapest option (multi-homing effect). The authors study pathways through law that would limit the incidence of unpaid work by revisiting three areas of the legal framework: working time, safety and health, and access to work/labour intermediation. The authors argue that reclassification, suggested, among others, by the draft Platform Work Directive, can reduce the platform discount for the misclassified workers, but will leave solo self-employed unprotected. The authors explore two possible strategies to reduce the platform discount for the solo self-employed working on labour platforms: 1) a broader understanding of the concept of working conditions on digital labour platforms covering both standard employees and solo self-employed; 2) proceeding area by area, with the extension of occupational safety and health to the solo self-employed on digital labour platforms being the most feasible and promising from a regulatory standpoint.

This work examines the intersection between traditional human resource management and the novel employment arrangements of the expanding gig economy. While there is a substantial multidisciplinary literature on the digital platform labor phenomenon, it has been largely centered on the experiences of gig workers. As digital labor platforms continue to grow and specialize, more managers, executives, and human resource practitioners will need to make decisions about whether and how to utilize gig workers. Here the authors explore and interrogate the unique features of human resource management (HRM) activities in the context of digital labor platforms. The authors discuss challenges and opportunities regarding (1) HRM in organizations that outsource labor needs to external labor platforms, (2) HRM functions within digital labor platform firms, and (3) HRM policies and practices for organizations that develop their own spin-off digital labor platform. To foster a more nuanced understanding of work in the gig economy, the authors identify common themes across these contexts, highlight knowledge gaps, offer recommendations for future research, and outline pathways for collecting empirical data on HRM in the gig economy.

In this study, we examine the concept of decent work on local digital platforms in Serbia. So, this article focuses on the research topic of whether labour done on local digital platforms may be classified as "decent work." Labour digitization and the digital economy are novel phenomena that need in-depth examination. We begin with the concept of the digital economy as a basis for the development and expansion of digital labour. This new economy is characterised by knowledge and the use of various smart tools, as well as the crossing of national borders, and so on. Nowadays, we may talk about the gig economy, which is defined by short-term employment on online platforms or labour via mobile applications. These developments resulted in the establishment and growth of a worldwide digital labour market marked by non-standard forms of employment, insecure labour agreements, and the involvement of thirdparty intermediaries between employees and clients. There are considerable efforts to alter employment legislation throughout Europe. Co-regulation, which involves several players in the decision-making process, is one possible option. The Directive on Improving Working Conditions in Platform Work, which is now in the process of adoption, is perhaps the most important document at the EU level. It is worth mentioning the practices of the European Union's Court of Justice, national courts in Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany, as well as national regulations in both Italy and France that establish the right to disconnect. We must also acknowledge the work of international and national trade union federations, such as the European Trade Union Confederation. So, the most pressing issue in this study is finding decent work in the digital labour market. A decent work index comprises many indicators. With statistical and legal indicators, the International Labour Organisation discusses 10 core aspects of decent work. According to an early study, there is no decent work on digital platforms due to bogus self-employment, which occurs when certain entrepreneurs work for only one company. The reasons for this phenomenon are reduced expenses and employers' lack of accountability. This is also an aspect of digital labour in Serbia. To assess the gig economy in Serbia, we use the online labour index and the gigmeter. According to the online labour index, Serbia is among the top 15 nations in the world in terms of the number of digital employees, accounting for 1.4% of the global total. Software development is the most frequent occupation. According to the gigmeter, the most frequent employment is creative and multimedia. The most crucial duty is to figure out how many digital employees there are in Serbia. According to the most conservative estimate, Serbia has almost 90,000 digital employees. Almost two-thirds of digital employees in Serbia are in hidden employment. Now we can talk about doing decent work on digital platforms in Serbia. To assess decent work, we apply the Fair Work Principles. Fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation re among these principles. Every platform can be scored with a basic and an extra point, for a total of 10 points. The study incorporates five platforms: Uradizaradi, Glovo, Wolt, Car: Go, and Mr.D. According to the Fairwork rating, Uradi-zaradi and Wolt met the most requirements but received just a passing grade. The Public Policy Centre performed extensive research on decent work to find that it does not exist on digital platforms. The most essential motivation for digital labour is a high wage, which comes at the price of a long working week. This study determined that neither platform satisfies the passing standard and makes some recommendations for improving working conditions on local platforms. First, the practice of bogus self-employment must be stopped. Second, labour legislation must be revised. Third, the right to collective bargaining must be extended to digital workers. This can be done by a strong trade union movement that can find a way to safeguard digital employees without jeopardising traditional workers' rights.

The article considers digital labor platforms – virtual spaces where the organization of labor is carried out and social relations are formed according to certain rules. The study uses logical, economic-statistical and systematic methods of cognition. The COVID-19 pandemic has created additional impulses to increase the workforce employed using digital labor platforms. In fact, digital platforms have developed their own business model and have begun to form the dominant vector of development of the global labor market. The platforms carry both employment opportunities and challenges. Employment does not always save millions of workers from extreme poverty.The author highlights the lack of social guarantees, including hospital, medical and other types of insurance, including pension plans as one of the key problems of employment on digital labor platforms. To a large extent, the platforms rely on the labor of employees who are classified as “self-employed” or “independent contractors”, but not “employed workers”. This is one of the fundamental shifts that has far-reaching implications for the future of work. The transformation of labor relations is of long-term nature and requires the creation of new mechanisms that ensure the interaction of the parties to labor relations and their representatives in the new economic reality.

The value of digital platforms cannot be ignored. With their integrated nature, digital platforms remove boundaries in the digital economy and have become the operating system of our lives (Vaidhyanathan, 2018, p. 99). Digital platforms are not an option anymore but rather an essential tool and the core of the digital ecosystem (Ha et al., 2023). In the meantime, the capability to utilize digital platforms determines not only opportunities but also threats, and accordingly the use of digital platforms has positive and negative consequences. For example, people can take part in open discussions with others on digital news platforms. However, the anonymity and remoteness of digital platforms may allow antisocial behaviors such as the mass production of rumors and public opinion manipulation.Though the use of digital platforms has both sides of the coin, research on psychological understanding of malicious behaviors on digital platforms is still limited. Previous studies appear to focus mainly on the positive side of the coin. Therefore, this Research Topic solicited empirical articles examining the antecedents, processes, and effects of malicious behaviors on digital platforms. This editorial piece aims to provide a quick review of the four articles published under this Research Topic, followed by concluding remarks.The four articles take a deep dive into three prevalent forms of malicious behaviors on digital platforms: malicious comments, hate speech, and cyberbullying. First, focusing on malicious news comments, Lee, Baek, and Kim investigate individual factors, including demographic characteristics, personality traits, and reading-related factors, as well as contextual factors such as issue involvement, perceived peer behavior, and the presence of malicious comments in news articles. An analysis of online survey data of 1,000 Koreans demonstrates that most of the proposed variables have a significant impact on the perceived maliciousness of online news comments, except for morality and issue involvement. The results shed light on the mechanisms behind individuals' perception of the maliciousness of online news comments and offer valuable insights into the ways to reduce malicious comments.Second, two studies tackle hate speech, both its expression patterns in the context of gerontophobia and the public's attitudes toward its regulation. Kim and Ryu have analyzed 133,218 news articles about the elderly and 1,238,935 comments on Naver, Korea's leading portal site, posted between May 2017 and June 2021. Kim and Ryu have used a deep learning model, kcBert, for labeling and classification of gerontophobic comments, and LDA (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) Topic Modeling for identification of news topics. Over the observed six years, the proportion of gerontophobic comments, particularly those showing the "fear of aging," has gradually decreased. Gerontophobic comments tend to emerge under news articles related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the issues related to the elderly (e.g., their digital and financial exclusion, their economic and social welfare), and other historical issues (e.g., comfort women).Park, Kim, and Kim unpack factors that predict the public's support for regulation on online hate speech. Through an analysis of online survey data of 1,000 Koreans, Park et al. document two direct pathways to support for regulation from victimization experiences by hate speech and effectiveness of regulatory measures respectively. Their results also identify an indirect pathway linking (i) content uploading behavior, (ii) victimization experiences by hate speech, (iii) social harm caused by hate speech, and finally, (iv) support for regulation. Park et al. highlight the important roles of perceived harm by hate speech and effectiveness of regulatory measures in determining support for regulation of online hate speech.Lastly, Al-Turif and Al-Sanad investigate digital bullying, specifically its prevalent forms, causes, and repercussions. Through a descriptive analysis of survey data of 640 students from five universities randomly selected to represent five regions of Saudi Arabia, Al-Turif and Al-Sanad show that digital bullying is widespread in diverse forms on social media (e.g., hostile messages that hurt the feelings of the recipient). For perceived causes of digital bullying, respondents have selected psychological reasons, followed by social, technological development-related, and economic reasons. The results also demonstrate that digital bullying has serious repercussions for social media users, families of victims, and society.In summary, the articles provide timely findings and point to the importance of understanding psychological characteristics of malicious behaviors on digital platforms. They advance our understanding of malicious behaviors on digital platforms by showcasing their patterns, causes and effects and delving into mechanisms behind individuals' perceptions of maliciousness as well as support for regulation. Insights gained from this Research Topic could help us better understand the related studies conducted in Asian and Middle Eastern contexts. We hope that this Research Topic will inspire further in-depth research on how to mitigate the serious problems of malicious comments, hate speech and digital bullying on digital platforms.